Andrea Crossman

More Good News For Holland, Michigan!

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:29:00 GMT

The 2009 tax credit for first time home buyers has been generating an in crease in sales. One out of two sales were first time home buyers in 2009. The average tax credit that was received was $5,000. Coldwell Banker Woodland Schmidt offices earned $3.5 million in tax credits. Of the $3.5 million $1.75 million was from buyers of the Holland Coldwell Banker Woodland Schmidt office. The greater areas of Holland and Zealand, Michigan earned $7 million in 2009 tax credits for home buyers.

The city of Holland, Michigan has launched a new web site to promote the city and provide information on moving to Holland. The Web site is the most recent development in efforts to market the city, following a promotional video released last year. The site includes promotional videos, an online quiz and a downloadable application or “widget” that lists city events. The Web site features links with information on the area economy, recreational opportunities and local neighborhoods. Visitors can click on a map that will link them with the attributes of a specific neighborhood, ranging from downtown to Holland Heights.

Enjoy Holland Michigan Web Site

Holland By The Lake Web Site

Grand Rapids Press Article

WZZM News Broadcast about Happy Holland

ABC News: Michigan Town One of the Happiest Places in the U.S.

For more information about purchasing a home in Holland, Michigan please contact the Andrea Crossman Group.

Ottawa County Ranked Second Healthiest County in Michigan

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:58:00 GMT

The University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation developed a new ranking of nearly every county in the nation shows significant disparities in the overall health of residents, depending on where they The data used was on premature deaths, self-reports about health and factors such as smoking rates, obesity, teen births, the percentage of children in poverty and number of liquor stores vs. grocery stores to rank more than 3,000 counties nationwide against others in their state.

The counties are ranked according to the measure of health outcomes and health factors. Health factors in the County Health Rankings represent what influences the health of a county. We measure four types of health factors: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic, and physical environment factors. In turn, each of these factors is based on several measures. Health outcomes are based on equal weighing or mortality and morbidity measures.

Top 10 Michigan Counties
Rank Health Outcomes Rank Health Factors
1 Livingston 1 Washtenaw
2 Ottawa 2 Livingston
3 Leelanau 3 Ottawa
4 Alger 4 Oakland
5 Clinton 5 Clinton
6 Emmet 6 Marquette
7 Washtenaw 7 Grand Traverse
8 Grand Traverse 8 Leelanau
9 Marquette 9 Midland
10 Houghton 10 Dickinson

County Health Rankings

For more information on purchasing a home in Ottawa County visit the Andrea Crossman Group.

Holland, Michigan Ranks High in Philanthropy and Public Facility

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:54:00 GMT

Hope College’s DeWitt Tennis Center has been named the national 2010 Public Facility of the Year by the Professional Tennis Registry, or PTR. The six-court center, which opened in August 1994, was honored for the array and quality of programs that it offers to its members as well as the Holland tennis community. The 40,000-square-foot building features men’s and women’s locker rooms, and a waiting reception area. The DeWitt Tennis Center offers instruction year-round for players from kindergarten through the high school level, including a nine-week tennis academy held each summer. The center offers annual memberships for individual community members and families, and its services also include adult tennis clinics and private lessons. The DeWitt Tennis Center is located along Fairbanks Avenue near Holland Municipal Stadium.

The news organization points out that a report of the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently named the region of Western Michigan – in which Holland is located – as the No. 2 most generous area in the U.S., behind only Salt Lake City, Utah. Despite its 16 percent unemployment rate, Holland has over 100 volunteer-based service organizations fanned out through the city.

Video from ABC News about Holland.

For more information on purchasing a home in Holland visit the Andrea Crossman Group.

Holland, Michigan Ranked Second in Overall Well-being

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:51:00 GMT

Holland, Michigan was ranked the second best city in overall well-being on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index . Boulder, Colorado ranked first and Honolulu, Hawaii was third.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index surveyed over 353,000 Americans age 18 or older in 2009. The survey was completed by randomly polling 1,000 Americans per day, in 162 large and medium-size cities. The results for overall well-being, life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment, and basic access based on Gallup-Healthways data from 2009.

Six sub-components of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index:

Life Evaluation Index includes a self-evaluation of two items present life situation and anticipated life situation five years from now, using the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale with steps from 0 to 10.
Emotional Health Index includes 10 items: smiling or laughter, learning or doing something interesting, being treated with respect, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, stress, and diagnosis of depression.
Work Environment Index includes four items: job satisfaction, ability to use one's strengths at work, supervisor's treatment, and is it an open and trusting work environment.
Physical Health Index includes nine items: sick days in the past month, disease burden, health problems that get in the way of normal activities, obesity, feeling well-rested, daily energy, daily colds, daily flu, and daily headaches.
Healthy Behavior Index includes four items: smoking, eating healthy, weekly consumption of fruits and vegetables, and weekly exercise frequency.
Basic Access Index includes 13 items: access to clean water, medicine, a safe place to exercise, affordable fruits and vegetables; enough money for food, shelter, healthcare; having health insurance, having a doctor, having visited a dentist recently; satisfaction with the community, the community getting better as a place to live, and feeling safe walking alone at night.

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index City Rankings

Top 10 Cities Overall, Well-Being

Rank City WBI Score
1 Boulder, Colo. 72.5
2 Holland, Mich. 71.0
3 Honolulu, Hawaii 70.8
4 Provo, Utah 70.6
5 Santa Rosa, Calif. 69.4
6 Santa Barbara, Calif. 69.3
7 San Jose, Calif. 69.2
8 Washington, D.C. 69.1
9 Ogden, Utah 69.1
10 Oxnard, Calif. 69.0

To view the full lists and view other graphs on the nations well-being visit Gallup.com

For more information on this topic there is a good article in USA Today

Michigan Has Seen Better Days; Proposals For Change

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:18:00 GMT

Michigan ranked as the seventh worst state, with one default and auction notice or foreclosure filing for every 258 homes in January. Michigan is the worst in the nation with the highest unemployment rate. The state unemployment rate is currently at 14.6%. The state also has a 1.5 billion dollar deficit. What is being proposed to help solve the state from swirling even farther down the drain.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed a new sales tax on services. The tax proposal would reduce sales tax from 6% to 5.5%, and expanded to 168 services Michigan does not tax, such as accounting and legal services, landscaping, auto and home repairs, dry cleaning and tickets to concerts, movies and sporting events. The tax would not apply to health care, education, construction, real estate commissions, insurance premiums or business-to-business transactions. The proposed service tax purpose is to avoid more cuts to public schools, and a tax on doctors to improve Medicaid health care to low-income Michigan residents. The revised sales tax would pump an additional $550 million to schools next year.

Citigroup Inc. plans to let homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay in their homes for six months, if they turn over the deed to their property. Citi is launching the pilot program, "Foreclosure Alternatives," this week in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio. The program is intended to help borrowers who don't qualify for a mortgage modification or a short sale have a less severe hit to their credit score. Initially, about 1,000 homeowners are expected to participate. Borrowers in Citi's program will still need to pay their utility bills. But Citi will pay at least $1,000 in relocation costs and will consider helping out with other expenses. Citi also plans to provide relocation counseling.

Proposal A, which limits annual increases in property taxes. Under Proposal A, property taxes can increase only up to 5% or the rate of inflation so long as the same person owns the home in question. However, if the ownership of the home is transferred, the taxable value of the house can rise at a much greater rate. The stated purpose of Proposal A was to provide incentives for homeowners to remain in the same home, encouraging neighborhood stability while simultaneously keeping the tax burden on homeowners low. The taxable value of a home is limited in the amount it can increase. During periods when the value of real estate is rising, this provides significant savings for taxpayers.

A Change In View, Offshore Wind Farm Proposed for Lake Michigan

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:10:00 GMT

There has been a proposal to construct an off shore wind turbine along the west coast of Michigan. Scandia Wind Offshore, LLC wants to build 100 to 200 wind turbines along the coast of Lake Michigan. The proposed site would be a 100-square-mile area of Lake Michigan between Ludington and Pentwater. The turbines would be located about one and a half to two miles off shore. These turbines would stand 300 feet tall. The project needs additional study and numerous state and federal permits before it would receive the green light.

Offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high speeds and new research is able to identify the areas where these winds are located. The site in Michigan was one of the best in the United States because of wind and sea conditions, water depths and the connection to the electrical grid at the Ludington pump storage facility.

So much is invested in Michigan to save the shoreline, protect Lake Michigan, keeping the invasive carp out of our waters and to keep the quality of Michigan's natural resources protected. Michigan has 400 miles of coastlines which draws in many tourist. Michigan's boating, fishing and tourism is a 7 billion dollar industry and the proposed site is mainly tourist towns.

There are so many concerns about this proposed project; What effect it will construction of the turbines have on the lake? Will it help the struggling Michigan economy and is so for how long? How will the Michigan winters effect the turbines? Will the communities benefit from the wind farm? What are your thoughts and opinions on putting an offshore wind farm in Lake Michigan?

Whats to Come in 2010?

Andrea Crossman — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:12:00 GMT

Appraisers say that it is becoming increasingly harder pinpoint what a home is worth. With a flood of inventory hitting the market from rising foreclosures appraisals are coming in low. Roughly 40 percent of all home sales in 2009 were foreclosures or short sales, meaning the property sold for less than the mortgage. Appraisers they are setting home values accord to the reality of the market and some appraisers are comparing distressed properties to brand-new homes.

Adding to the problem is that many real estate appraisers are now hired under new industry rules. Designed to limit conflicts of interest that can bias an appraisal. Appraisers are hired from outside the area and don't have the local knowledge to find homes that can be a better benchmark for regular homes.

According to analysts and economists there may be another wave of potential home foreclosures in 2010 which could cause home prices to fall another 5% to 10% before the market stabilizes. One reason for more foreclosures is that in 2009 many lenders were under pressure from the Obama Administration to postpone repossessions until loan modifications could be made. The postponed foreclosures will now be done in 2010.

Low mortgage rates have helped millions of homeowners reduce payments on their existing homes. The combination of cheap mortgages and lower prices has pushed the “affordability” index close to its highest level in nearly two decades, according to the National Association of Home Builders.The sales of existing homes picked up with a big boost from the extended tax credit. The hope is that by this spring, the housing market and economy will begin showing sustainable growth without the help of the government. The real estate market is highly seasonal, so the most relevant statistic isn't the month-to-month trend but the year-to-year trend.

Happy New Year!!!!

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:26:00 GMT

Highlights from the year 2009:

January 15: Plane crashes into Hudson River; All 155 passengers and crew aboard survive.

January 20: Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and first African American, President of the United States.

February 1: Steelers win Super bowl 43, Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23.

March 7: NASA launches Kelper Mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, a space photometer, which will search for extra solar planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

April 24: The World Health Organization expresses concern at the spread of influenza from Mexico and the United States to other countries. International cases and resulting deaths are confirmed.

May 13: President Obama proclaims May 2009 as Jewish American Heritage Month.

May 7: Wildfires near Santa Barbara, California burn 3,000 acres of land and force 15,000 people to evacuate.

May 14: Chrysler and General Motors terminates over 1,889 dealerships throughout the United States.

June 25: The death of American entertainers Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett trigger worldwide grief.

July 22: The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century occurred over Asia and the Pacific Ocean. The eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds.

August 3: Bolivia becomes the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

September 14: Patrick Swayze, an American actor and dancer passed away (born 1952).

November 4: The New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Phillie's 7-3 in Game 6 to win the 2009 World Series.

December 20: Brittany Murphy, an American actress passed away (born 1977).

2009 Real Estate Market Graphs for Holland Michigan

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:22:00 GMT

Graph "A" shows the number of homes sold each month for 2009. Graph "B" shows a comparison of average selling prices for real estate in the Holland and Saugatuck area for 2008 and 2009.

Graph A:

Graph B:

Continued Improvement for Michigan Real Estate Market

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:02:00 GMT

An article from the Associated press stated that home sales grew in the second quarter in 39 states. Again statistics state continual improvement for the housing market. Although numbers are not as high as they were a year ago. According to the National Association of Realtors the total quarterly sales rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million, from 4.58 million in the first quarter, but were still about 3 percent below a year ago. Nationwide, foreclosures and distressed sales made up more than a third of all sales in the second quarter. Many economists now say that the worst of the housing recession is over, though foreclosures are expected to rise over the next year.

Statistics generated from the Southwestern Michigan Regional Information Center also show an improvement in the housing market. In Holland, Michigan in the past three months 463 homes and condos were sold. In Holland from May to August in 2008 there were 456 homes and condos sold. The average selling price of a home from May to August in 2009 was $143,644. The average amount of days on the market for these homes was 111 days. Compared to 2008 the average price of a home was $167,849. These homes were on the market an average of 123 days. Most of the homes sold in 2008 and 2009 were on the market for 120 or more days. In 2009 there were 190 homes sold after being on the market for over 120 days. This is 41% of the homes sold in 2009. The homes sold in this time period received 91% of the listing to selling price. In 2008 there were 204 homes sold after being on the market for over 120 days. This is 44.74% of the homes sold in 2009. The homes sold in this time period received 95% of the listing to selling price.

West Michigan Real Estate sales for Grand Haven, Holland and Saugatuck regions

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:54:00 GMT

West Michigan Real Estate sales for the areas West of 31 from South of Grand Haven, Holland and the Saugatuck regions

Real estate home sales statistics along the West Michigan Shoreline communities South of Grand Haven to Holland and Saugatuck for the first 3 months of 2008 compared to 2009.
In 2008 there were 161 homes sold with an average sale price of $216,848, compared to 2009 when there were 138 homes sold with an average of $155,186, representing a 14% drop in volume, and a 29% drop in average price. Average days on the market in 2008 for this reporting area was 157, and sellers got an average of 94.85% of their listing price, and 90% of their ORIGINAL listing price, meaning the price it originally went on the market; in 2009 those numbers were 133 days on the market, with sellers getting 90.05% of list price, and 81% of ORIGINAL list price. Average price per square foot for these 161 West Michigan homes was $125.61 in 2008, and $94.97 in 2009. In 2008 the high, low, and median prices were high-$2,950,000, low-$28,000, and median-$129,300; 2009's West Michigan real estate sales numbers were, high-$2,250,000, low-$17,000, and the median-$87,500.

Broken down by month, the sale look like this:

January 2008-54 / 2009-28
February 2008-52 / 2009-50
March 2008-55 / 2009-60

Looks pretty bad out there, but if you look at the most recent month, things seem to be picking up ever so slightly.

Favorite Real Estate Links

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:51:00 GMT

Favorite Real Estate Links

Fear of the Market

Andrea Crossman — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:37:00 GMT

Monday, April 27, 2009

Michigan Real Estate sentiment

I was recently at a golf outing this past weekend up in the Big Rapids area and was able to have some good conversations with a couple of my friends, Bob and Pat, about the state of the Michigan, specifically Holland, real estate market. The conversation started off when I brought up the sale price of a home that we passed along our way through Zeeland. Pat was amazed at the fact that it sold for as much as it did, saying that he thought that the home would have sold for about 30% lower than it actually did. This statement was immediatley agreed upon by Bob, who said that he was thinking about just walking away from his home because of the recent reports of how bad the market is out there; worried that his home would be worth 10's of thousands less than he paid for it. Walk away?!! Really?!! don't you need a place to live? Pat didn't necessarily think that walking away was the answer, but maybe asking the bank to do a loan modification might work. OK, here's what's strange. Nothing has changed in either one of these guy's incomes, or is even looking like it's going to change. So why all of the fear? Well, what we have is, like the swine flu, a pandemic of sorts. Many people are infected with the notion that we are all going to lose our jobs and end up in the bread lines. You know what's going to cause that? walking away from houses, and thinking that no matter what, every home is worth 50% of it's original value.

Price Reduced on 11 S First St. #403 in Grand Haven

Andrea Crossman — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:13:00 GMT

Grand Haven, Ottawa County - Announcing a price reduction on 11 S First St. #403, a 1,285 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm single story. Now MLS® $249,900 - SPECIAL PRICING.

Property information

Price Reduced on 619 Lakeshore Drive in Allegan County

Andrea Crossman — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:05:00 GMT

Allegan County, Michigan - Announcing a price reduction on 619 Lakeshore Drive, a 3,038 sq. ft., 4 bath, 4 bdrm 3 story. Now MLS® $699,000 - Reduced! Lake Michigan.

Property information