Well Grand Rapids receives a welcome bit of news in the form of the fastest growing real estate market! It’s no surprise to us of course. Grand Rapids has done a lot of things right, especially in the downtown core. We have a thriving, vibrant community of people that care about this city. It’s a great place to live and raise a family.

Home values rose in about one-fourth of housing markets from the third quarter of 2010 to the same period of 2011, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The Grand Rapids, Michigan market enjoyed an increase in home values from $89,900 to $111,200. Up 23.7 percent!

Looking for a home or condo? Search all of Grand Rapids homes and condos from this website. if you have something specific in mind, contact me any time.

Grand Rapids Home Sales up 26.2% From a Year Ago

 The Grand Rapids housing market continues to show signs of life as home sales were up 26.2% compared to June 2008. For the third consecutive month, single family homes have seen an increase in the average sales price (up to $119,923) from $97,073 in April 2009. This number does show improvement and is encouraging, but it is still down 12.5% from last June. These figures were prepared by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors. This portrays a 19.9% increase in the home sale price from the beginning of 2009, where home prices were $95,010 for the month of January. The number of active listings in the Grand Rapids real estate market continues to remain steady at slightly over 9000. Sales year-to-date for single family homes was up 10.9% compared to one year ago.

These are good signs for our market. Especially when you take into consideration the amount of distressed homes such as short sales and foreclosures which are hurting and dragging down the overall Grand Rapids housing market.

Other positive indicators which show a good market trends are the average days on market, which is going down while the average selling price, median sales price and the percentage of the listing price compared to sales price, all continue to show improvement.

For more information about the Grand Rapids Real Estate market or to search for homes online, visit my website or contact me any time.

Alan Beaulieu Addresses the Grand Rapids Economy

 A few weeks ago I attended a “Survival Strategies Summit” put on by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors for its members. It was a very informative and encouraging afternoon. One of the speakers in particular, a Mr. Alan Beaulieu, a senior analyst from the Institute for Trend Research, spoke about the national and international economy. 

He focused on what the economy was doing, what people can do about it, and how to know when economic recovery has started. The topics Mr. Beaulieu covered included the housing market, economic stimulus packages, taxes, the stock market, and the future of Medicare, Social Security, and U.S. competitiveness in global markets. He used many charts during his presentation and responded to questions from members of the audience.

In mentioning Grand Rapids, one of the things Mr. Beaulieu touched on was the the Medical Mile and the vision of Grand Rapids and how we should be used as a model for the rest of the country. He is right. We hear a lot of talk about how bad the market is but I am getting as many inquiries about Grand Rapids real estate  and Grand Rapids condos from my website as I ever have and there seems to be quite a few relocation queries about Grand Rapids. Things have changed to be sure, but homes and condos are selling.

This is a good and hard-hitting video from Alan Beaulieu and if you have the time, I highly recommend watching it.