Posts

Investors Add to Competitive Housing Market

/in , , /by

With limited housing inventory, homebuyers are already over a barrel when shopping for a new home. But add investors into the mix and the market becomes even tougher. Nationally, Metro Detroit has experienced the second-highest increase in the number of investor-purchased homes year over year. Investors are cash buyers who can close more quickly which makes it even harder for buyers getting a mortgage. But for the seller, cash is king and a cash sale allows a seller to move on with their future.

Detroit Midtown Development Gets a Boost

/in /by

Petit Bateau, a $31 million Midtown mixed-use development, received a tax break from the Michigan Strategic Fund. The fund approved a more than $247,000 state tax break to fund environmental decontamination. The 92-unit project also received $2.6 million from the city in tax abatements for decontamination work. Twenty percent of the development’s residential units are set aside for individuals at 80 percent of the area median income or below.

Westin Book Cadillac Penthouse Condo Sets a New Record for Detroit

/in /by

A Westin Book Cadillac penthouse sold for $3.537 million. The penthouse sits atop the 31-story high-rise hotel in downtown Detroit. The deed was recorded in Wayne County in December. The sale came at a time when the downtown Detroit condo market was oversaturated. Previously, the most expensive Detroit condo sale was recorded at about $1.8 million in 2017. Incidentally, that condo is also in the Westin Book Cadillac.

 

Midtown Development’s Tax Credits Expire

/in /by

The Mid development in Midtown is headed toward a financial loss. The developer is still trying to get the project off the ground. Almost $9 million in Michigan Business Tax brownfield tax credits expired on Thursday, June 10, 2021. The 10-year expiration looms because the development team has not built the promised seven stories of one of its proposed buildings by June 10, 2021. The Michigan Business Tax statute requires projects to be completed within 10 years of the pre-approval letter.

Former Site of Detroit Country Day School Purchased

/in /by

The historic former Detroit Country Day School building has sold. The 38,500-square-foot building has sold to JCJ Development LLC which is registered to Jordan Jonna. JCJ Development will convert the original school building into a residence. In 2017, Detroit Country Day announced a $30 million campus expansion and vacated the building. The building received a $2.9 million purchase offer from the Troy-based Kensington Church in 2019. The church withdrew its offer after community protest.

 

 

Wholesaling Middlemen Descend on Neighborhoods

/in /by

 

States and cities in the U.S. are cracking down on a niche in house-flipping known as wholesaling. The wholesalers do not typically hold real-estate licenses which makes regulation difficult. Wholesalers negotiate with homeowners and then put the homes under contract and sell those contracts to home-flippers. A home that just needs a little upgrade is long gone in today’s market. Instead, wholesalers are targeting homes that aren’t on listing services and need major overhauls. Most are in poorer neighborhoods. There are allegations that some wholesalers mislead struggling homeowners about the value of their property and take advantage of the situation.

Second “First” Home Buyers Accelerate Home Prices In Southwest Michigan

/in , /by

A beachfront house in New Buffalo will set a new record for Southwest Michigan.  It will be the fourth home in New Buffalo to sell for $4 million or more in the past year. The real estate boom in Southwest Michigan is not only at the upper end of the market. Along the 16-mile strip of shoreline towns from New Buffalo to Bridgman, home sales were up 48 percent in the first quarter of the year from the same time in 2020. Buyers aren’t necessarily buying vacation homes. They may keep their first residence in another city, but think of New Buffalo as “home” for now as they wait to see how things play out with the pandemic. New Buffalo is seeing an influx of buyers from Indiana and the Chicagoland areas.

Short-term Home Rentals Create Debate

/in , , , , /by

Two Michigan bills that address short-term home rentals have created intense debate about who will determine how to regulate dwellings like Airbnb or vacation rentals. The Ann Arbor-based Michigan Municipal League and Lansing-based Michigan Association of Realtors are on opposite sides with each asking its constituents to email, call and write to their local legislators about the bills. Under the bills, a short-term rental would be a residential use of property. It would be a permitted use in all residential zones. It would not require a special use or conditional use permit, and it would not be a commercial use of property. Opponents of the bills call them a “cookie-cutter approach” to legislation that ignores the different needs of Michigan communities.

 

U.P. Vacation Home Prices Boom

/in /by

In keeping with vacation locales in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the prices of vacation properties in the Upper Peninsula are on the rise. With limited inventory, many of the recent cottage buyers hail from out of state and intend to use their new U.P. properties during winter months as well as summers. Realtors are seeing multiple offers on every listed property. The median sale price was $197,000 from January 1 through mid-May. That’s nearly a 20% increase from the same period pre-pandemic in 2019.

 

Farmington Hills Council Denies Housing Development Proposal

/in /by

Farmington Hills Council denied a 26-home development because of concerns about the property’s density. The development was proposed for the former Piemontese Social Club site and would’ve been geared toward senior citizens wanting to downsize. Both council and neighboring community members expressed concerns about the closeness of the homes to each other. The ranch-style homes would have sat on 10 acres.