2008 ~ The Good News -The Bad News for Grand Rapids Real Estate

Grand Rapids is a large geographic real estate market. The city of Grand

Rapids proper is one market, and the outlying suburbs usually have a

different sales ratio than the city of Grand Rapids does. And these different

suburbs were all over the board in 2008. There were a lot of homes that lost

value and there were a few bright spots where sales were almost up to the

average. This is really better done, neighborhood by neighborhood, but this

report will give you the “BIG PICTURE” for real estate 2008.

2008 can’t be analyzed without talking about foreclosures, bank owned

properties, or short sales. This category of sales was about 40% -70%

of our 2008 market (depending on the month), but only about 20% of our

homes listed on our local board. Many homeowners that were in the seller’s

seat this year were not in a happy place. Many are selling their homes

at less than they paid for them a few years ago. If anything, this market

emphasized how valuable home equity is in a soft market.

As you can see, the average home sale lost almost 17% of its value

compared to 2007 totals. This is good news compared to the 2008 stock

market (losses are runnning at 40%) but bad news if you owed more on your

mortgage than your home would sell for.

The majority of sales were in the under $160,000 category. This doesn’t

mean homes worth more were not selling, they were at a slower

rate of sale because there were fewer buyers for this price range.

There were only 3 townships that showed any growth in sales last year.

Alpine Township was up 3%, Ada Township was up 1%, and Grand Rapids

Township was 0%, which I rate as a plus in this market.

If you have questions about your Grand Rapids home value, contact me

through my website highlighted below.

If you would like to receive free Grand Rapids Market Reports in your

inbox, please let me know.

*All statistics come from the GRAR MLS Service, which is deemed to be

reliable but not guaranteed. Homes not listed on the MLS would not be

included in the above information.

Grand Rapids Real Estate