Your guide to metro Detroit real estate and housing this summer

Lauren Wethington, Detroit Free Press
·4 min read
A for sale sign is seen in St. Clair Shores on Monday, October 19, 2020.
A for sale sign is seen in St. Clair Shores on Monday, October 19, 2020.

Metro Detroit's real estate market continues to boom amid soaring demand and sky-high prices. Planning to buy or sell soon, or know someone who is?

Read on to get up to speed on interest rates, inflation, new construction trends and more.

Inflation and market trends

A new construction made from 5 and half shipping containers is for sale for $450,000 in Ferndale, Mich. photographed on March 14, 2019. The home was built on an empty lot.
A new construction made from 5 and half shipping containers is for sale for $450,000 in Ferndale, Mich. photographed on March 14, 2019. The home was built on an empty lot.

Think homes in Michigan are overpriced? You might be right

Big bold blocks of red on the map cut across the bottom half of Michigan indicating wide swatches of communities where Moody's Analytics warns that housing prices are meaningfully overvalued by more than 20%. We're looking at not just one spot or neighborhood where home values are vulnerable to a downturn, but huge chunks of the lower half of the state below the thumb. It's like a weather map for those who worry about economic storms.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on May 04, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Powell announced the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates by a half-percentage point to combat record high inflation. This is Powell's first in-person news conference since the pandemic began. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Federal Reserve interest rate hike may not be the last as inflation skyrockets

Many consumers will feel an even greater financial squeeze as interest rates climb in the months ahead. Sticker shock will keep hitting car loans, credit cards, mortgages and more.

More: Your 2022 summer guide to dining, cooking and beer in metro Detroit

More: Your 2022 guide to summer fun in metro Detroit: concerts, festivals, attractions, more

More: Metro Detroit summer development guide: Openings, closings, renovations abound

Rising mortgage rates so far not cooling metro Detroit's housing market

Rising mortgage rates have yet to dampen buyer demand in metro Detroit's housing market, where prices continue to soar amid a dwindling inventory of available homes. Real estate agents say that among potential buyers this spring, the overwhelming concern is the same as last year: getting an offer accepted.

The West Boston Apartments, on the edge of the Boston-Edison neighborhood in Detroit, were listed for sale and expected to become market rate rentals. With help from the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund, the developer of the complex, instead, will renovate and preserve it as affordable housing for years to come.
The West Boston Apartments, on the edge of the Boston-Edison neighborhood in Detroit, were listed for sale and expected to become market rate rentals. With help from the Detroit Housing for the Future Fund, the developer of the complex, instead, will renovate and preserve it as affordable housing for years to come.

Metro Detroit rents have gone up 8.8% over past 2 years as inflation sizzles

Relentless rent hikes continue to take a bigger chunk out of paychecks earned by young consumers, people of color and others as inflation sizzles. As rents rise, many renters will face greater financial vulnerability in the months ahead when they are not able to keep their rental costs at or below 30% of their total income.

Metro Detroit home prices rise 5.3% in March, with houses for sale in high demand

Across metro Detroit, median home prices rose to $229,450, up 5.7% from a month earlier. The median home had 1,446 square feet, at a list price of $163 per square foot.

10 metro Detroit cities had biggest home sale surges of 2021

Overall across southeast Michigan, home prices were up nearly 15% last fall compared to 2020, according to the closely watched S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index covering Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, St. Clair and Lapeer counties.

Housing equity

Top reasons for mortgage denials in Detroit
Top reasons for mortgage denials in Detroit

Report: Lenders still approve whites at higher rate than Black applicants in Detroit

Home mortgage approvals have been going up in the city of Detroit, but lenders still approve Black borrowers at a lower rate than whites, even in some instances when Black applicants have higher incomes, according to findings in a report from a Detroit nonprofit.

$243M fund to help Michiganders stay in homes will include those with land contracts

Income eligible homeowners can apply to the Michigan Homeowner Assistance Fund for up to $25,000 per household through the program made possible by $242.8 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic recovery funding.

Detroit Right to Council Coalition member Evan Villeneuve (center) talks with volunteers (left to right) Geri Warren, Jerome Hunt, and Shapri Hunt while explaining the section of Martin Luther King I & II homes in Detroit where they will pass out flyers about fed rent aid to residents on Friday, September 24, 2021.
Detroit Right to Council Coalition member Evan Villeneuve (center) talks with volunteers (left to right) Geri Warren, Jerome Hunt, and Shapri Hunt while explaining the section of Martin Luther King I & II homes in Detroit where they will pass out flyers about fed rent aid to residents on Friday, September 24, 2021.

Free legal help on the way for low-income Detroiters facing eviction

It's a move advocates say is a major step forward in a city where tens of thousands of eviction cases were filed each year and where most tenants didn't have legal representation compared with landlords, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Detroit City Council wants statewide housing agency to speed up rent aid applications

Detroit City Council urged the statewide housing authority responsible for administering millions of dollars in emergency rent aid to speed up the application process in Wayne County, where it can take approximately 90 days to get funds approved.

New construction

Single-family houses are under construction at Legacy Estates, a new Lombardo Homes development in Macomb, on Jan. 13, 2022.
Single-family houses are under construction at Legacy Estates, a new Lombardo Homes development in Macomb, on Jan. 13, 2022.

As metro Detroit housing prices surge, new construction plateaus

Builders are constructing fewer than 5,000 new houses each year, even as limited inventory frustrates potential buyers and drives prices up. New construction has stalled at this rate since 2013, according to data from the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan.

It's tough to be home buyer in Michigan right now — and new construction isn't helping much

Building industry insiders say that while they are currently seeing an uptick in contracts for new houses, overall home building activity in metro Detroit never rebounded from the 2007-09 housing market collapse and remained stuck for more than a decade at historically low levels.

Detroit is at the center of several home building experiments. Here's a look at 4

As costs continue to rise for both materials and labor, a handful of entrepreneurs in metro Detroit are testing nontraditional building methods to create affordable housing options. From 3D-printed homes to tiny houses to dwellings made of shipping containers, these creations are generating buzz and showcasing new possibilities for the future of home construction.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Your guide to metro Detroit real estate, housing this summer