Vance Shutes, your Saline, MI Real Estate Connection

Here's the latest Saline market report for November, 2008. This is an update to my regular sales report which I reported earlier this month. If you are interested in a Saline home or condo, here's how our market looks in November, 2008.

Each month, I review all of the homes for sale (column 2) in Saline within defined price ranges (column 1), and those homes where the sellers have accepted a sales offer from a buyer (columns 3 & 4 - Percent Pending). I also review all of the sales in past 30 days in each price range (column 6). The results for November 2008 are shown in the table below:

Using the data shown above, this month, let's look at a chart of the number of months of inventory of homes for sale in Saline. The number of months of inventory is calculated by taking the total number of homes available for sale (column 2 above) divided by the number of homes which have sold in the past 30 days (column 6 above).

In the chart above, the blue bars show the number of months of inventory each month in 2007. The red bars show the number of months of inventory each month so far in 2008.

This chart clearly shows the continuing improvement we see in the Saline real estate market. Other than back in January, 2008, the level of inventory so far in 2008 is lower than in the same month in 2007. The figure for November, 2008 is that we have 11.4 months of homes to be sold. The figure for 2007 was 16.8 months of homes to be sold.

The holidays are right around the corner, and Saline homes and condos are still selling. I'll continue to keep track of our market. Count on it!

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What do you think? Do you see the market improving here in Saline? I'd love to read your comments on our market.

If you have questions about your specific situation, or if you're considering selling your Saline home or condo, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of my experience in the Saline market. I'd be happy to meet with you! Just give me a call at (734) 476-2063, or send an e-mail, "Vance (at) SalineMichiganRealEstate (dot) com".

You can search for homes and condos in Saline here.

Just this morning, we saw a sight for sore eyes in Saline.

Did you ever think we'd see gas prices below $2 again?

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If you're looking to buy or sell a Saline home or condo, or have questions about your specific situation, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of my experience in the Saline market. I'd be happy to meet with you! Just give me a call at (734) 476-2063, or send an e-mail, "Vance (at) SalineMichiganRealEstate (dot) com".

You can search for homes and condos in Saline here.

Here's an update on my featured homes for sale, and for lease.

1469 Middlewood, Saline ($245,000)

161 Commons Circle, Saline ($145,000)

1513 White St., Ann Arbor ($200,000)

1218 City Dr., Ann Arbor ($150,000)

1766 Fulmer, Ann Arbor (Lease - $1295/mo)

4125 Weber Road, Saline (Lease - $1375/mo)

211 Old Creek, Saline (Lease - $1400/mo)

212 Commons Court, Saline (Lease - $1000/mo)

You can take a virtual tour of any of these homes through the respective post.

If you're ready to start your search for a Saline home or condo, talk to someone with local knowledge! I'd be happy to meet with you. Just give me a call at (734) 476-2063, or send an e-mail, "Vance (at) SalineMichiganRealEstate (dot) com".

You can search for homes and condos in Saline here.

If you like my blog, please subscribe! Just hit the "RSS" logo button to your right. Thanks!

As you all know, I review our market statistics around the middle of each month. What I'd like to focus on this month is the overall strength of the market in, and around, Saline.

The first chart I'd like to review is shown below. I've tracked real estate activity for the Saline real estate market since 1996. There is a definite seasonality to the market - strength in the summer, weakness in the winter. A reading above 25% is a "seller's" market, while a reading below 20% is a "buyer's" market.

It's no surprise to learn that we have been in a "buyer's" market in Saline since the end of 2004 - more than three years, now.

What we see here in the middle of May, 2008, is a continued strengthening in the overall real estate market, going back to last October. The jump in strength from April to May is very encouraging, as we have reached a level unseen since the summer of 2005. So, the question to ask is "What could be the cause of this?"

This second chart (above) shows 2 lines. The top line shows the number of homes available for sale (listings) in the Saline area. The lower line shows the number of homes sold each month.

In answer to my question posed above (What could be the cause of this?), the strengthening of the Saline market since October is a direct result of fewer homes listed for sale. Each month, there are fewer and fewer homes for sale in the Saline market. How could this make the market stronger? Well, with fewer homes competing for the available buyers, it's more likely that any of the homes listed for sale will actually sell during the month. That's what we mean by a strengthening of the market!

Another interesting observation from the chart is that the number of sales in the Saline area has been rather consistent since 2005! In a previous post, we learned about the three "P's" that you control when you sell. The homes that are selling now, have been selling since 2005, are those that have consistency between the three "P's". Go back and check that post for a reminder.

The final piece of the analysis of the strength of the Saline real estate market is the months of supply of homes presently on the market.

This table shows the "raw data" that makes up the charts shown above. On the far right hand side of this table shows the "Months Supply" in each price range. Rather than focus on any particular price range, it's more helpful to understand the overall level of inventory of homes for sale.

As of mid-May, at the present pace of sales of homes in Saline, there are enough homes on the market to supply about 10 months of demand. This is down significantly since February, when there was nearly a 20 months' supply of homes for sale. In the past few years, it's been typical to have about 6 months' supply of homes for sale, so our market continues to improve toward our average.

If you're looking to sell in this market, take heart! Call me!

Every city and town has one park that tends to define the best features of the community. In Saline, that would be the Mill Pond Park. When you're looking for Real Estate in Saline, Michigan, having a great park in town is an important consideration.

To those families with young children, most of us know the park more simply as the ROMP, which is an acronym for Re-create Our Mill Pond park. A number of years ago, civic leaders in Saline organized an effort to build a "super structure" playground for young children at Mill Pond. The ROMP structure has been a hit with my kids over the years! Here's what it looks like from the sledding hill:

And speaking of a sledding hills, one of the better ones in Saline is located at the northeast corner of the park. From the bottom, here's what the sledding hill looks like in the spring:

Many of us have our family pets, and the Mill Pond Park accommodates the dog owners in Saline with a "leash free" zone. Here's what that looks like:

It's a really large area, and borders the Saline river, so your dog can go for a swim if it's really warm out. Just watch out for the swans and geese - they bite!

The entire length of Mill Pond park borders the "Mill Pond" area. Back in the 1800s, when Saline was being built, the Saline River was dammed up to create the mill pond. The pond water was used to drive a water wheel at the lumber mill, where area trees were converted to lumber for home building.

One of the other enjoyable activities at ROMP (as I call it) is to take the kids fishing. There are mostly panfish in the pond these days, but occasionally you'll hook a large carp - and then, hang on!

While you're at the play structure area, you can shade yourself under the pavilion, which is available for lease for large groups through the city of Saline.

Or, you can simply enjoy a walk around the park, which extends upstream from the mill pond into the Saline river, where you can enjoy the babbling brook.

Each summer, Saline is host to the Celtic festival. Much of the Celtic festival takes place at the Mill Pond park.

The park is also used by the Saline High School Cross Country teams. When you walk around the park and see some of the hills the XC runners have to go up (!!!), it takes your breath away. Thank goodness they're young when they do those runs!