Recovery continues in hard-hit market

It may be the market most impacted by the recession, but the latest figures point to the ongoing recovery for the state so many have written off

Sales prices in one distressed market have hit a 10-year high, according to recent statistics – pointing to a recovering market and higher potential for originators.

Prices in Southeast Michigan have hit 10-year highs in three of the past five months, according to Realcomp, a firm that focuses on MLS sales data.

Metro Detroit saw 26,174 sales during the period of May through September, which represents an 8.4% increase of the same period last year.

And brokers in the area are feeling the effects.

“Business has definitely been picking up and appraisals are coming in higher,” Josh Jardin, an originator with Atlantis Mortgage, told Mortgage Professional America.

Jardin says buyers are feeling more confident and that the market has steadily been recovering since taking a major hit during the economic downturn.

“I have seen the effects of a recovering market; my experience, of late, is that I’ve seen prices increase by 20% or more,” Jardin said. “In the suburbs prices have gone up by 30%.”

Fence sitters who have awaited market recovery and the sell-off of bank-owned homes are credited with driving these boosts in sales and prices.

Foreclosed home sales decreased to 5% in September from 6.4% in May, according to the firm.

"That's almost back to normal," Dan Elsea, president of Southfield-based Real Estate One Inc., told local Detroit publication Crain’s Detroit Business. "When the market peaked for that around 2010, the level was nearly 55% of sales that were either bank-owned, short sales or other kinds of distressed transactions. Now that's down to under 10% distressed. The inventory for that has cleared out."

For real estate professionals in this area, these stats point to recovery for the market.

"We see this as a long-term recovery with slow and steady improvement in the near term and over the next five years," Seth Herkowitz, partner at Farmington Hunter Pasteur Homes, a local developer, told Crain’s.

Herkowitz’s firm is building six developments this year; it built four in 2013.