Home prices in metro Detroit continued to fall in March, dropping 18.8% as the market struggles for a rebound.
And in a separate report, April home sales were down by 3.6% in the tri-county area, according to Realcomp, a Farmington Hills-based multiple listing service.
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The home price data, released today by Zillow.com, indicated that index value of homes in the area fell to $87,300 for March for Livingston, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties combined.
The report also indicated that metro Detroit’s housing stock has lost nearly half, or 47.1%, of its value since the fall of 2005.
Despite sporadic good news about metro Detroit’s housing market, the overall picture continues to be one of a depreciating market, said Zillow.com chief economist Stan Humphries.
“Most definitely you are still falling,” Humphries said. “In the last year, you saw a little improvement. There is probably some stabilization in Detroit.”
Metro Detroit has a 25.5% depreciation rate in May 2009, he said, compared to the current 18.8%.
Still, 28.1% of all homes sold in March sold for a loss, according to Zillow data.
And the number of homeowners with mortgages who were underwater at the end of March has fallen, according to Zillow data. There were 24.9% underwater at the end of March compared to 25.5% at the end of December.
But data released today by CoreLogic indicated that 46.8% of metro Detroiters owed more on the mortgage than the house was worth on the current market. That equates to 128,190 of residential properties with a mortgage underwater at the end of March.
Sales off in Wayne County, up in Macomb and Oakland
The Realcomp report shows sales fell to 4,422 from 4,588 in April 2009. The tri-county area registered a 4.7% rise in pending sales for April, with 6,883 homes with signed purchase agreements, up from 6,575 in April 2009, and largely driven by the homebuyer tax credits.
Sales were off by 16.9% in Wayne County, driven by a 36% decline in the city of Detroit. Sales rose by 16% in Oakland County and by 4.3% in Macomb County last month.
The drop in sales “has a lot to do with the inventory coming down” and people not able to find the house they are looking for, said Karen Kage, CEO of Realcomp.
The inventory of homes for sale now has fallen to 38,394 in April, compared to 50,685 in April 2009.
But the median sales prices rose last month as there were fewer sales of foreclosed homes. Realcomp figures indicated the median sales price for April in Detroit was $9,000, up 50% from $6,000 in April 2009; in Macomb County it was $76,000, up 28.8% from $59,000; in Oakland County it was $110,000, up 30.2% from $84,500; and in Wayne County it was $36,900, up 105% from $18,000.
Dan Elsea, president for brokerage services at Real Estate One in Southfield, said that April was a record month for his company in terms of signed purchase agreements with 1,987 signed. He credits low interest rates, low home prices and the tax credit deadline for delivering that performance.
“The past month has just been a wild, wild west,” Elsea said. “One of the things we can’t do is take too much to heart that has happened in the last four months because so much was driven by artificial market stimulation.”
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Tags: Detroit, Housing Market Conditions, Housing Market News