Detroit real estate's surge bucks national trend

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Home sales across the country slowing down in the last heat, down 8 percent from this time last year. 

Detroit is bucking the national trend. Here in the metro area, home sales were up in February and March - an improvement from when sales were down in the first quarter overall in 2018. 

"February and March, home sales were up and weren't up for the first quarter overall last year so we are bucking the national trends right now," said Jeanette Schnieder, ReMax. 

Metro Detroit saw a slight increase, but it was the story of Detroit that's turning heads - with some prices seeing a dramatic uptick. Overall, there is a 48.6 percent increase over the last year.  

"Which is a huge number, you're not going to see that every day but it (points) to the fact that Detroit is really seeing a comeback," said Schnieder. "We've read about it, heard it and people have talked about it. Numbers are now backing that story up."

This isn't downtown or Midtown, these are neighborhoods?

"These are neighborhoods, these are places where you want families to live," Schnieder said. "This is what we have been waiting for, to see those types of numbers."

For example, a 1,300 square foot house in Royal Oak is going for $274,000.  A healthy economy meets a healthy housing market with plenty of demand which is more than the rest of the nation is seeing. 

"When the economy tanked, we hit and we hit hard and we hit first," she said. "So we had ground to make up that some other areas did not have, that's probably part of the reason so we have more pent up demand here."

As for Detroit, more jobs and more announcements like the one Tuesday from Google autonomous car maker Waymo opening up shop in the city. It all means good news for the real estate market.  Schnieder recalled a conversation she had recently with a Metro Car driver about it.

"The driver was telling me how many fairs he has with people coming in for interviews," she said. "He is doing a lot of work, taking people from the airport to Detroit for interviews. If they get those jobs they're going to need a home - so that's good news for us."