Traverse City Real Estate

I love my city! I just picked this article up from another blog. Click on the link following the exerpt for the complete story.

Realtors: Sales decline skipped Michigan towns

Posted by ANDREW McGLASHEN | Capital News Service February 22, 2008 11:55AM

Categories: Business

LANSING - A quick scan of the news offers a bleak portrait of Michigan's housing market: menacing locks on the doors of foreclosed houses, plummeting home values, empty neighborhoods dotted with "for sale" signs.

But not every part of the state feels the crunch.

"We've been somewhat insulated up here," said Kim Pontius, executive vice president of the Traverse Area Association of Realtors.

"Real estate is a local phenomenon, not a national phenomenon," he said, and a comparison of housing markets in Southeast and Northwest Michigan is "like night and day."

Pontius said smart borrowing and lending practices, as well as the Traverse City area's aesthetic appeal, have kept the market there stable.

"The values of the homes are consistent with what people are borrowing," he said.

Pontius said his organization sold just under 10 percent fewer homes in 2007 than in the previous year. But he added that 2005 and 2006 were "banner years," so the dip in sales wasn't surprising.

http://blog.mlive.com/cns/2008/02/realtors_sales_decline_skipped.html