Despite the cold and snow melting and then more snow and more cold, January started off being a good month for home sales in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. Sellers always want to know, “Should we list now or wait until Spring?”

The answer is, “it depends”. There are more buyers in the Spring market, but the ones out looking in the snow and cold are serious. They are usually not out kicking tires, or shall we say taking boots off and on from house to house?

Closings were up in January by 10% compared to January 2007 and the good news is the listings were down by 13%. Now, those two facts alone should make sellers in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County happy, happy.

Now the not so good news, the average list price was down to $276.422 and that is 18% lower than last January. The average sale price for homes throughout Washtenaw County was $228,512. and that is down nearly 13% compared to last year.

If your home is not selling, there is one thing you can control and that is price and condition. You can’t change the floor plan, you can’t change the location but you can control the price and the condition. There is nothing less expensive to make a house shine than to take down wall-paper and add fresh paint. Buyers don’t want your wall paper. Ann Arbor buyers are looking for value in a home and those homes in the best condition, priced to sell and with the buyers perceived best value are selling.

If your home is not getting any showings, chances are it is 10% over-priced, and if it is getting showings and no offer then it is 5% over-priced.

January data compiled by Big House Data and gathered from the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors.

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For more graphs to be emailed to you, leave a comment with your request or call my direct line at 734–821–0757.

You can search all listings at Search Ann Arbor Houses.

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