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Home Sales Up In Detroit, Down in Suburbs

Posted by: Robert Goodspeed

20 March 2007 - 9:00am

Although homes sales were down over 20% in some Detroit suburbs last year, the city itself saw a modest increase of 6%, and residential construction is at a 30-year high.

"For decades, Detroit was known more for population flight and abandoned homes than for new construction. Today, the Detroit market is keeping some home builders and real-estate agents in business.

Sales of existing houses were up 6% in Detroit last year, compared with a drop of 14% for all of Michigan and declines of 20% or more in Oakland, Monroe and Livingston counties.

New residential construction in the city, meanwhile, is at its highest point in more than 30 years. New permits for single-family construction are more than 10 times higher than a decade ago, while the total for southeast Michigan as a whole is down more than 60% over the same period. The city of Detroit led the seven-county metro region in new residential construction in 2006, the regional planning group SEMCOG reported Friday.

Detroit issued 739 permits for new single-family houses, townhouses and multifamily units, the most of any community in the region.

The reasons for Detroit's emergence are complex. Builders like Fielek mostly attribute the upbeat market to a desire for urban living. That trend remade downtowns from Seattle to Baltimore during the last 25 years and has finally arrived in Detroit and suburbs like Royal Oak and Birmingham.

Builders say their typical customers are empty nesters and young professionals and other people who want to live, work, shop and be entertained in a pedestrian-friendly area.

"Everybody wants walkability," said Herb Strather, a Detroit-based developer and partner in Woodbridge Estates."

Full Story: Faith in Urban Living is Building
Source: The Detroit Free Press, March 18, 2007
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Provide the whole story

Submitted by cityboy on Tue, 03/20/2007 - 17:17.

This article is selective with the data. How many of those City of Detroit housing units were built WITHOUT public subsidy?? What's the three year and five year history for City of Detroit population and housing starts?? for the suburbs? Check out the SEMCOG.org website -- the City of Detroit still has major issues reflected in (lack of) desirability to live there. The suburbs and Oakland County remain the economic engine for the region. Detroit is trying and there are signs of progress, but there should be some more numbers to give a more accurate picture.

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The circumstances that many localities and planning departments are suffering in the current economic winter will no doubt generate stress on administrations and service levels. The economy, combined with the housing bubble, has dealt a double blow to local budgets and revenue streams.
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