neonvincent

Update to this entry, in which I posted the following from the Detroit Free Press.

Median home sale prices were down 13.3% in metro Detroit to $58,000 last month, compared with $66,900 in March 2010. Prices were down in all counties, but sales prices in the city of Detroit rose by 10%, to a median of $8,505 from $7,725.

Prices are also down, but note the price rise in Detroit proper. That's an early sign of a possible recovery, even if it's starting at a very low level. In a BAU environment, I'd say that the local market is very close to a bottom. The BAU people agree.

Kathy Coon, broker/owner of Real Living Great Lakes in Rochester Hills, said that prices are coming up despite the March readings.

"Once the appraisers see what is going on in the market, the prices will start coming back up," she said. "The good houses right now are selling really quickly, those that are priced right and in good condition. We are seeing the good foreclosures selling really quickly with multiple offers."

Looks like Ms. Coon was right. A few days after I posted that news, the Free Press followed up.

February metro home sales up 1% from January

The metro area gained 1% in February compared with January, but was down 3.7% from February 2010, according to S&P/Case-Shiller home price data released Tuesday. Home prices for the top 20 cities in America were down by 3.3% from a year ago and down by 1.1% compared with January.

Detroit was the only major metropolitan area in the U.S. to show an increase in prices month-over-month according to the Case-Schiller index. Even so, home prices here are only 68% of what they were in 2000. Business as usual? Not quite.

Above originally posted to Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

It's been more than a month since I promised you all an analysis of the Census for Detroit. I haven't exactly followed through, even though the Census figured in several posts since then, so it's high time I bring you some more news inspired by the Census, even if it is a bit old.

Detroit News: Empty homes dot Oakland County's upscale suburbs
Laura Berman
Last Updated: April 07. 2011 5:47PM

Numbers don't lie: They tell unpleasant stories, including new census numbers pinpointing high vacancy rates in some of Oakland County's most elite suburbs.

The half-secret behind many of the well-maintained facades and manicured lawns of some of the area's most lavish properties is that nobody's home.

Birmingham (9.4 percent) and Bloomfield Hills (10.2 percent) showed vacancy rates significantly higher than 10 years ago. Those rates are similar to Detroit's vacancy rate a decade ago.

Those of you from metro Detroit reading this entry should understand exactly what this means. For those reading who are not familiar with the area, these two towns are very upscale suburbs, the equivalent of Beverly Hills and Westwood/Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Imagine those areas with 9-10% vacancy rates. That would be very distressing.

Tiny Lake Angelus, with 132 households in north Oakland County, is historically a pocket of the county's wealth. Always private, the census takers also found that 13.2 percent of the residences were unoccupied. Vacancies in Farmington Hills were 6.8 percent, up from 3.3 percent in 2000.

The first one--eep! This enclave of Richistan is not doing well at all! The second shows that things are bad, but that areas that are more solidly middle-class instead of rich, people are staying in their homes if they can.

"One of the striking things is that the foreclosure crisis has hit parts of Oakland County that we would have thought are untouchable," said Andy Meisner, Oakland County treasurer.

This is one of the signs that things are not business as usual (BAU), nor are they going to be for the foreseeable future. Too bad. In a BAU climate, I'd be very optimistic about an economic recovery around here. There's nothing a lot of energy for economic activity wouldn't fix. But this isn't BAU, so I'm not very optimistic about BAU solutions.

Back to the article.

Vacancy is a distress signal and communities try to hide the red flags of emptiness. Owners — even banks — maintain the lawns and exteriors, and when they don't, neighbors call the city.

"Even our blight is better," quipped Annabel Cohen, a Bloomfield Township homeowner who hasn't noticed any deterioration.

Snerk You wish. Also, let's see how long that lasts.

Others aren't as chipper, saying that as the crisis goes on, homeowners are more likely to be as distressed as their unsold properties.

Lots more at the link in the headline. I will pass on on one bit of advice from the article before moving on--watch the lawns this summer to see which houses are really occupied, and which are just being kept up to look that way by the bank. Also, keep in mind that those figures are from a year ago. Things could be worse by now. Or, they could be better.

( The Detroit Free Press has more articles about the real estate situation here in Metro Detoit. I'll give the good, the bad, and the ugly. )

Above originally posted as The Census on vacancy rates plus the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about March 2011 real estate in Metro Detroit on Crazy Eddie's Motie News along with Earth Day in the National Progressive Press.

Once again, the news delays my project of blogging about Contemplating the Hedgehog with the following story from the Detroit Free Press.
Experts to meet in Detroit to discuss urban revitalization
John Gallagher

Several dozen of America’s leading thinkers on urban revitalization will gather in Detroit later this week for a four-day brainstorming session to help distressed cities reinvent themselves.

This comes on the heels of yesterday's post about shrinking Detroit. Looks like a hot topic (and not the store that sold Faygo to Juggalos, either).

The meeting is sponsored by the American Assembly, an organization founded by President Dwight Eisenhower and based at Columbia University in New York that tackles some of the nation’s toughest problems.

"Nation's toughest problems"--they have no idea. I'm not talking about Detroit; I talking about the issue of societal collapse and reinvention. Just don't know yet that's what they're really meeting about. Or maybe they do...

The goal is to come up with new approaches that various cities can adapt to their own circumstances as they work toward revitalization, said David Mortimer, president of the American assembly.

“The assembly expects to develop a more informed and successful response to the challenge of population loss and contraction, drawing on a wide range of expertise and experience,” he said. “This event will be one of the first major gatherings in the United States dedicated to these problems and to policy responses.”

As I commented yesterday over on Kunstler's blog, I suspect the largest political unit that is aware that it is managing contraction is the City of Detroit, where they can't avoid the realization. I'm glad that people outside Detroit are realizing that its problems are not unique to the city. About time, too.

It’s no accident the assembly is holding this conference in Detroit, he added.

“Detroit may be the best illustration of these problems in the United States — and also the leader in developing coordinated policy responses,” he said.

I recommend you read the rest of the article. You'll find that it's not just North Americans who are interested in our problems and offering solutions.

As I've written before, welcome to Detroit, Ground Zero of the post-industrial future. Whatever solutions are devised here for our problems will be exported to the rest of the continent. It's an exciting time to live here, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Above originally posted to Crazy Eddie's Motie News as American Assembly to meet in Detroit to discuss urban revitalization.