Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk

Michigan was ranked # 3 in the Nation for Corporate Expansions.

Site Selection’s annual Governor’s Cup award recognizes the state with the most new or expanded private-sector capital projects as tracked by publisher Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant Database.

Ohio was named #1 and Texas #2

Major new corporate projects for Michigan in 2009 included:

• Advanced energy storage and solar firms like Xtreme Power
  

• Clairvoyant Energy on the site of the former Ford Wixom assembly plant

• Advanced-battery development and manufacturing firms A123 Systems (Ann Arbor),

• Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions (Holland)

• Dow Kokam (Midland)

• Major expansions by General Motors and Ford for electric and hybrid vehicle production here.

Site Selection also recognized Detroit-Warren-Livonia as the nation’s No. 4 metro area with a population of one million or more for new and expanded corporate facilities.  Among metro areas with a population of between 200,000 and one million, Grand Rapids-Wyoming tied for third; Holland-Grand Haven was fifth; and Ann Arbor and Lansing-East Lansing tied for sixth.

Michigan Economic Development Corp. president and CEO Greg Main said.  “These high rankings reinforce that Michigan is a top-tier location for growing companies because of our aggressive initiatives, strong business climate and hard-working and talented workforce.”

Read more here and here.

Well I am cheering and clapping for this good news for our state.

Ann Arbor Market Data for Zip Code 48105.

One of the new requirements in the Michigan Construction Code is to mandate Fire Sprinklers in all new home and townhouse construction.

I was notified of this yesterday by the Michigan Association of Realtors weekly newsletter. MAR is fighting this costly legislation.

MAR is working with Habit for Humanity and the Home Builders Association to fight this expensive addition to the code.

According to MAR:

“There are already mandates in place for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in new builds. A 2008 study from the National Fire Prevention Association shows that chances of surviving a reported home fire when working smoke alarms are present is 99.45%. Clearly, every fire death is a tragedy. However, the solution to reducing these deaths isn’t mandating expensive sprinkler systems; it is to make sure every home has working smoke alarms.”

In these tough economic times in Michigan, especially for builders do we really want to add expensive legislation to the home building code.  99.45% is a huge number to be saved during a fire with smoke detectors.

Make sure you change yours once a year. Pick a date and do it, your birthday, anniversary, a holiday.

Keep your smoke detectors updated.

Photo Credit

Back in May, I wrote a post on first time home buyers in Michigan Residents being able to buy homes on a land contract and still be able to claim the up to $8000.00 tax credit.

I have been sending out the downloaded legal opinion to many of who have requested the PDF file. The opinion was written by Greg McClelland, legal councel of Michigan Association of Realtors.

Fred Upton, U. S. Congressman (Michigan 6th District) District Representative, Ed Sackley contacted me and asked for the legal opinion. I sent it to him.They wanted a further review.

They contacted the IRS and asked them to confirm the opinion. So YES, if you are a First Time Home Buyer in Michigan you can claim the up to $8000.00 tax credit IF YOU PURCHASE USING A LAND CONTRACT !!!

Thanks Ed, for letting me share with my Ann Arbor, Saline and Michigan residents who read my blog.

* This may not apply in all states, check with your own state*

Every month I like to post the market reports for the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors Market Stat’s.

On my AnnArborRealEstateTalk blog and MissyCaulk.com website they are always there and updated weekly.You can subscribe by email to get updated on a weekly basis.

April data is posted here.

In May we saw 233 homes sold vs May of 2008 where we saw 303 homes sold.

The average list price was up by 9% so that is an encouraging sign.Actually I’ve been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I through that in to see if you were reading.

Homes for Sale in Ann Arbor