March Home Prices Jump 22% in Metro Detroit, Foreclosures Fall

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The average single-family home or condominium in metro Detroit sold for $140,000 in March, up 21.5 percent when compared to the same period last year, says the latest monthly report from Realcomp II Ltd. in Farmington Hills.

“The home prices did go up in every single area,” says Karen Kage, CEO of Realcomp, a multiple listing service. “The number of foreclosure sales is down considerably across the board, (which are what) historically keep the prices lower. So as we see those start to lessen, we’ll see those prices continue to rise.

According to Realcomp, homes sales in the region increased by about 7 percent when compared to March last year. The areas with the largest sales increases were the five Grosse Pointe communities and Genesee County, says Kage. She says inventory also increased by about 4.5 percent.

“We’re getting ready for that really busy, nice time of year,” Kage says. “To see that inventory rise in March is a good indication of what we hope to see as we get further into the spring and summer months.”

Realcomp also released a sales summary for the first quarter of 2015. The average single-family home or condominium sold for about $132,000, up almost 19 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2014.

However, sales decreased by almost 1 percent. “I think part of that is during that portion of time (in the first quarter of 2014), when there were so many foreclosures, especially in Detroit, there were so many units sold then that it couldn’t stay that way (in 2015),” Kage says.