It's official the University of Michigan Regents gave the final vote to expand the "Big House". If you are football fan, or not most everyone has heard of the University of Michigan "Big House". That is the nickname attached to to the U.M. football Stadium.The last year has been full of controversary over whether to have Sky-Boxes in the "Big House". By a vote of 6-2 the U.M. regents gave final approval to go forward withe plan, which will include 83 luxury suites to be sold along with premium seating. The luxury boxes are the most controversial part of the plan.Committees were formed to defeat it but to no avail. After all Division 1 Sports, especially football is very productive to the profit margin of college sports. The controversary is because the luxury suites will change the face... 06/27/2007

Anyone else see the quote of the day from Inman News?  "Six-inch hooker heels" is how Bill Gross of PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund describes the attractiveness of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) to the ratings agencies.Actually, the whole article is pretty good.  Click here for some of my own views on the subprime market and how it will impact our housing market. 06/27/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.The appraisal process is supposed to represent the independent valuation of properties by unbiased professionals, people paid for their opinion -- whether their opinion is higher or lower than clients might like.This idea that appraisers should stick to the truth does not necessarily make them the most popular folks in town. Independent views are great in theory, but sellers often would like to see higher estimates while buyers might prefer more conservative valuations. Loan officers, also, are among those who frequently prefer steeper valuations because elevated prices make it easy to reach loan-to-val... 06/26/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Click on the links below to read more on home improvement pitfalls.Ten Mistakes Do-it-Yourselfers Make - Home improvement projects often require more time and money t han you expect. Four experts share the ten most common mistakes.Top Ten Mistakes of DIYers - Knowing what you can do and what you can't tops the list of the biggest and most common mistakes weekend warriors make on home projects.Have You Over Improved Your Home? - It's not a problem unless you spend so much on improvements that you can't get your money back.Kathy Toth & Teamhttp://www.kathytoth.com/ 06/25/2007

The housing market in Ann Arbor, MI and Washtenaw County continues to show favor to buyers. Our MLS is coordinated by the different areas in Ann Arbor, (nine of them) and in Washtenaw County the MLS is coordinated by school districts.The areas of Saline, Dexter, Chelsea, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, Manchester, Milan, Whitmore Lake, and other areas a little further out are separate searchs. The list price of homes is down 13% from May 2006 to May 2007. With the average list price $217,559. When I became a licensed Realtor in 1995, the average list price was aproximately $269,000.The average sale price in May 2006 to May 2007, is down 10% with the average sale price $212,623. The number of closings is down 33% from May 2006 to May 2007. Year to date closings are down 16% from the same ... 06/23/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.If your house has been on the market for quite a while (3 to 6 months), you may have already dropped your price and now you're waiting for the buyers to rush in and make wonderful offers on this now-priced right property. And then it happens.The lone buyer does appear, like a bandit in the night and offers you even less than what you just agreed to. Quite a bit less -- about 10 percent less. So on your $350,000 house, that you just dropped to $324,000, you now have an offer for $299,000. With a seller subsidy request of $5,000. At this point, your net is $294,000.So how do you handle such a low-ball off... 06/22/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.                                             On Friday 6/22, Howell launches the 2007 Michigan Challenge Balloon Festival. More than 50 spectacular hot air balloons will fill the sky. On earth below, you can enjoy skydivers, stunt kites, live music, carnival rides, a skate board exhibition, children's activities. The fun goes through Sunday. This is a short drive from Ann Arbor, just North on US 23 and West on I96. Follow the signs. Go early in the morning when the balloons launch. For more information, including a complete schedule of festival events, visit http://www.michiganchallenge.com/. The weathe... 06/21/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Three bits of news came across my desk this week that may be pointing out that we may have it the bottom on the slumbering real estate market.Sales of new single-family homes jumped 16.2 percent in April -- the largest increase in 14 years (Commerce Department)This obviously reflects what's happening; we're in a buyers market. I hear the concern for buyers wondering if the prices of houses are going to fall further. They might -- and they might not. Nevertheless, buyers are taking advantage of several aspects of the market that make it favorable to purchase:Lower prices Low interest rates Seller contrib... 06/20/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Question: We own and live in a small condominium association here in the District. The tenant who lives below us is a habitual cigarette smoker and the smoke is somehow entering into our unit.This is very disturbing, especially since we plan to have a baby soon and do not want the smoke to create any health problems for us.What can we do?Answer: If you lived in Colorado, your Association could enact an amendment to your legal documents which prohibits smoking in the entire building, including the individual units.In November of last year, Jefferson County District Court Judge Oeffler, upheld such an ame... 06/19/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.I was with coach and speaker Verl Workman on Monday morning learning more about technology to deliver better service to our Ann Arbor area clients. His seminar was sponsored by OBEO so he spent about an hour show casing this vendor. OBEO sells virtual tours with aerial photos, Google earth, and neighborhood information presented with links from one page so the user has a quality experience. He also focused on the integration of the PDA, contact manager and outlook which seems to be a constant hassle for many business people. We have our contacts programmed in our Treos, along with email to be efficient ... 06/18/2007

What appears to be a regular feature on this blog, is the monthly rolling out of Big House Data's housing stats.  Well, let June be no exception!From the BHD Executive Summary:The mantra in this market is: price moves homes.  Location, price and condition are the traditional three keys to selling real estate.  Sellers have ultimate control over two of the three.  When condition and price converge in the mind of the buyer, the property sells.  And the stats show that compared to last year's market, 84% of the buyers are still there. [emphasis added by editor]84%?  That means that the number of closings this year, compared to last, are down 16%!  Phew.  And that's just from the first five months of 2006 compared to the first five months of 2007.For the folks looking for some graphs:Averag... 06/14/2007

Based on information from the Ann Arbor Area Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service.While the housing market reflects a decline from May 2006, total sales increased 6 percent from April 2007. Total volume also increased 4.51 percent when compared to April 2007.Total Listings Year to Date 2007: 7,805Total Sales Year to Date 2007: 1,334Median Sales Price for Residential: $205,000Residential Average List Price: $251,109Residential Average Sales Price: $239,028 For the full report go to: http://aaabor.com/downloads/News/HousingStats/07may.pdf 06/14/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Pick any major city and you're certain to find lots of traffic. Big city traffic is how you flow in and out of most cities, it's a threat to life and limb when crossing streets and since it's often a molasses-like mass of belching vehicles, big-city traffic is the surest way to enrich local cab drivers when going crosstown, uptown or nowhere at all. It now turns out that New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a guy who takes the subway to work -- wants to reduce Manhattan traffic in his fair city by instituting what's called "congestion pricing." The idea is to charge $8 a day for auto users who want ent... 06/13/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 20 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Planning to move this summer? You're not alone -- summer is the busiest time of year for professional movers, according to the American Moving and Storage Association. It's an arduous process, but these tips will make your transition much smoother.If you're planning to use a moving company, call now. As busy as they are, they usually need plenty of notice -- often at least six weeks or much more if you're moving a long distance.Be sure to build in some overlap between the closing/possession date of your new home and the last day of the lease on your rental (or closing date of your current home). Moving ... 06/12/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 45 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan."Top," "Best," and "Most" lists rarely tell the whole story, but they do serve a useful purpose.As literary distillations of larger stories, lists offer the kind of on-the-go information we need so we can pocket more time -- the real currency of the New Millennium. The best of the best of these lists are presented with a pinch of intrigue, turn of phrase, or perhaps a dash of humor. They hold our interest captive for the few fleeting moments we have to spare, but then leave us sated with pointed information. Craig Venezia, author of the new "Buying A Second Home: Income Getaway or Retirement" (Nolo, $24... 06/11/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 45 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Planning to remodel your out-of-date kitchen? Thinking about a major bathroom overhaul? If so, you're probably thinking about all the green you're going to spend, as in greenbacks. But smart home owners also should be thinking about another shade of green, as in energy efficiency and sustainability."With a few simple steps, home owners can turn a kitchen or bathroom renovation into a green renovation," says Mike Nagel, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders' Remodelers Council and a contractor from Chicago.Here are some upgrades Nagel and his fellow remodelers say can significantly reduce... 06/08/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters for ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 45 days with Kathy Toth & Team, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Shared appreciation mortgages, a loan product that gained some popularity three decades ago before fading away, could be making a comeback of sorts as a tool that will allow local communities to provide affordable housing that will remain affordable over time.Shared appreciation mortgages, or SAMs as they became known, are loans in which someone puts up all or some of the cash for a home buyer's downpayment in return for a portion of whatever amount of appreciation takes place in the value of the property between the day it is purchased and the day it is sold.In the 1970s and '80s, SAMs were used as a w... 06/07/2007

If you want to be on national TV show House Hunters, you can be featured on HGTV if you buy a home in the next 30 days with us.It's a painful position -- mounting credit card debt with increasing interest rates and no real vision of how to crawl out from underneath all that financing.According to the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Santa Clara and Ventura County, California, (CCCS) what got most people in financial troubles are: overspending (25 percent), reduced income or unemployment (31 percent), medical reasons (11 percent), divorce or separation (8 percent).The non-profit agency helps people alleviate their financial burdens and provides financial education and counseling on preparing to buy a home. Last year 7,043 households were counseled and received financial education wh... 06/06/2007

Housing Changes in Ann Arbor Board of Realtors   Last  9 YearsListings ( all properties)                      Sales                         Days On MarketApril 2007          1601                                      298                              87 April 2006           1588                                     355                              86 April 2005          1507                                      407                               77 April 2004          1102                                      372                              69 April 2003           989                                       430                              79 April 2002           987                                       430                              72 April 2001           962                            ... 06/05/2007

Pfizer is leaving Ann Arbor, we have known for that for months. Fine !Now all the Pfizer homes are coming on the market. Pfizer employees were given a 100 loss on sale clause. So if they purchased their home in 2001-2007, they will NOT make money on their house. Pfizer is compensating them for their loss up to 100,000.  Great. Problem is who is helping out the other sellers, who have to compete with homes WAY under market value? I met and did a pre-list appointment with a Pfizer relocating employee who bought their home in 2006 for 439,900.I told them, "you can only get 410-420 tops". I eventually turned down the listing because the relo company would only let me have it for 60 days. Once he takes his buy-out it goes to Prudential Relocation Company that is handling all the Pfizer relo'... 06/02/2007