First of all, I hope that all of you had a safe and enjoyable holiday - it's hard to believe that 2007 went by so fast!

2007 brought with it the celebration of our Cityrsquo;s Centennial but also budgetary uncertainty at the state level, the impact of which was compounded by the overall economic downturn that has dogged Michigan for the past five years.

As a result of the sluggish economy and recent collapse of the sub-prime lending industry, the residential sales market in the region has slowed substantially over the past two years. This trend has taken hold nationwide, but has hit Michigan particularly hard. Nonetheless, an analysis of residential sales over a three-year period shows that, even though the market is soft, the City of East Lansing appears to be holding its own.
This three-year comparison shows that, while home sales per square foot declined by 2.25% from 2005 to 2006, the market rebounded with a 1.1% increase in 2007. In real dollars, this amounts to a slight overall decrease in price per square ft. from $119.98 in 2005 to $118.29 in 2007.

According to the City Assessor, the number of actual home sales in East Lansing was a whopping 387 in 2005, 326 in 2006 and 255 in 2007. This may appear to be a significant decrease and in real numbers, it is. However, the large number of home sales must be considered in light of the 280+ new homes resulting from construction in the Hawk Nest and Eagle Eye neighborhoods.
If those new home sales are subtracted from the equation, and only existing homes are considered, the data still shows that the sale of existing homes declined only slightly.

According the Coldwell Banker Regional Lansing Residential Sales Summary, the average sale price for a home in East Lansing in the third quarter of 2007 was $211, 937, compared to $185, 912 for the same quarter in 2006. This represents a healthy 14% increase. At the same time, the average third quarter sale price in the region decreased by 11.15%.