Wyandotte Councilwoman Going to D.C. to Rally for Home Ownership

On the day after a Wyandotte councilwoman is heading to the nation's capitol to rally on the importance of home ownership.

Councilwoman Sheri Sutherby-Fricke, who works as a Realtor, said she, too, has seen the number of home sales increase lately, along with the dollar amounts attached to those sales.

"We are seeing it earlier than it was projected to be seen," she said. "I think we’ve bottomed out. The numbers are still roller-coaster riding, but they’re going up as they're roller-coaster riding."

Median sale prices rose last month to $70,000 in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties, a 1.6-percent rise from March. The new median is nearly 19 percent higher than in April 2011, said a report issued Monday by Realcomp II Ltd., a multiple listing service in Farmington Hills.

Selling prices rose within each county, extending a four-month trend for 2012. Livingston County has the highest median ($150,000), followed by Oakland ($114,500), Macomb ($72,500) and "Greater Wayne," excluding Detroit ($62,000).

Sales volume slipped for the first time in 10 months as fewer residential properties were on the market – 19,119 in Metro Detroit, 20 percent below the number of listings a year earlier. (Check out some houses up for sale in Wyandotte.)

Realtors sold 4,341 residences metro-wide last month, 89 fewer than the previous month.

A Downriver Trend

Especially hot Downriver, Sutherby-Fricke said, are short sales.

A short sale is a transaction in which a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage. It is a “strategic default,” designed to get a homeowner out of financial trouble without having to go through the credit-damaging foreclosure process.

While an owner has to prove a financial hardship before a bank will grant a short sale, Sutherby-Fricke said, more and more are getting approved.

"Short sales are exceeding the foreclosure market," she said. "That's helping to strengthen the housing market rather than creating more foreclosures. With a short sale, the owner gets to stay in the property until it's approved and those homes are maintained, which makes it better for the next buyer."

Lenders also are getting better at shortening the amount of time it takes for a short sale to go through, Sutherby-Fricke said.

Less than two weeks ago, she said, she finally closed on a short sale that was initiated in July 2009. While that sale took nearly three years to complete, she said, she began another short sale process in December and had it closed by the end of March.

"The average right now is three to four months for a short sale," Sutherby-Fricke said. "Short sales are a big issue going on Downriver. It’s improving sales. It’s improving home ownership. ... People should educate themselves, rather than just walking away from their homes, really study and work on the short sale process. Not all the time is it going to be approved, but you've got to work really hard on it."

As a federal coordinator with the National Association of Realtors, Sutherby-Fricke is going to Washington, DC, for the Rally to Protect the American Dream, taking place Thursday on the National Mall.

She will join hundreds of other Realtors from Michigan and thousands more from around the country to speak about the financing issues surrounding home ownership.

"It's such a big animal to wrap your arms around what's going on in the financial world," she said. "It's important for everyone to come together and be on the same page."

Summary by counties

Area

April sales totals

Change from April 2011

April median price

Change from April 2011

Oakland

1,148

1.5%

$114,500

9.0%

Macomb

922

8.9%

$72,500

13.3%

Greater Wayne*

1,291

-1.9%

$62,000

24.2%

Livingston

182

-9.5%

$150,000

7.1%

* Greater Wayne covers that county, minus Detroit.    

Source: Realcomp II Ltd.

(Freelance writer Alan Stamm contributed to this report.)