Macomb County proposes real estate fraud alert system

Macomb County proposes real estate fraud alert system

By Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press11:34 p.m. EST December 8, 2015

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(Photo: Christina Hall/Detroit Free Press)

Fraud on real estate transactions?

It’s real and a problem that Macomb County Clerk/Register of Deeds Carmella Sabaugh wants to curb.

Her office is proposing a fraud alert system to make real estate transactions safer and help protect private property rights by reducing the risk of fraud through the use of real estate consumer alert notices.

The letters will include the property address and book and page number where owners can look online for free to search their records. Documents will cost $6.

The fraud alert system would cost about $61,782 a year, starting Jan. 1, money that is available in the Register of Deeds Technology Fund.

“This is a big one,” Sabaugh said today of the effort, one of many by her office has made to make services easier for users, such as kiosk check-ins and text alerts for jurors. “Your home is your castle … help protect that home.”

Deputy Register of Deeds Craig Jones told county commissioners that said the office sees three kinds of fraud, including a tax or contractor’s lien on a property that owners have no knowledge of.  If a person doesn’t search his or her property, fines and penalties can add up, he said.

The office also sees situations among siblings where one child will ask their mother or father to sign documents and the parent doesn’t know what they are signing and other siblings are unaware.

The system would send consumer protection courtesy notices to all the names on the property, which could be helpful to landlords, officials said.

It could also help property owners who have paid off their mortgages but the register of deeds’ records still have the file open. That would prompt the property owner to call their bank or credit union to make sure those records are discharged, officials said.

Jones said the system probably will be up by the beginning of 2016. The Register of Deeds has handled about 162,000 documents this year, which is up a little from last year, he said.

The office worked with the FBI for the project and Jones has an agency contact should fraud be reported.

According to a packet given to county commissioners on the proposal, Michigan was 11th in the nation with significant mortgage fraud activity.

The Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office offers a free service to help people verify their personal land records to fight fraud, according to its website. The service allows property owners to see if unauthorized documents have been recorded against their property in that county’s Register of Deeds Office. It also has a fraud alert system to alert someone by email or phone of any recordings in their name or business name once they register, according to the website.

In Wayne County, the Register of Deeds has a property records fraud unit to receive complaints, investigate, charge and prosecute people for criminal and fraudulent land record activity, according to its website. The office collaborated with the county prosecutor and sheriff to establish the first in the nation property fraud task force.

Preventing real estate fraud is something everyone should be monitoring, Sabaugh said.

“If you plan to do anything – moving or taking out a home equity loan – you can’t do it if there is a cloud on your title,” she said.

Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

Morris Hagerman is a local real estate agent with Real Estate One in Royal Oak, Michigan.  He serves Berkley and the other Woodward 5 communities, including Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods.  Hagerman is also a member of the Berkley/Huntington Woods Area Chamber of Commerce.  You can contact him by phone at 248-854-8440, email at morrishagermanproperties@gmail.com or visit his web page.

Median prices for homes in Southeast Michigan highest in 10 years

Across southeast Michigan, the median sales price for housing hit $146,250 in October, 4.5 percent higher than October a year ago and the highest median October price level in 10 years – up from a low of $67,000 in 2010. Median means half the homes sold for more and half for less.

Median sales figures compiled by Realcomp and made available Thursday vary across the region down to the street level, but it reports housing and condominium activity primarily by county with some smaller areas broken out.

Realcomp defines southeast Michigan as Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, Livingston, Genesee, Lapeer, and St. Clair counties.

MEDIAN PRICES

Across the seven counties, Livingston County had the highest median sales price in October of $216,800, up 1.4 percent from a year ago. The median sales price rose 4.6 percent to $195,000 in Oakland County, 4.7 percent to $157,000 in Lapeer County, 9.3 percent to $139,900 in Macomb County, 3.5 percent to $132,000 in St. Clair County, and 12.1 percent to $108,750 in Genesee County.

In Wayne County, the median sales price rose 6.5 percent to $103,000. But the median sales price in Wayne County excluding Detroit rose 4.6 percent to $115,000.

SALES

In order, there were 1,811 sales in Oakland County in October, 1,691 sales in Wayne County, 1,143 sales in Macomb County, 476 sales in Genesee County, 312 sales in Livingston County, 225 sales in St. Clair County, and 104 sales in Lapeer County.

In other observations from Realcomp:

• The average days on the market fell by one to 46 days.

• The number of houses for sale was virtually unchanged at 25,071 compared to 25,068 a year ago.

• Median October sales prices have risen each year since 2011.

• Across southeast Michigan, the 6,408 sales in October is slightly below the October peak of 6,421 in 2009.

http://www.macombdaily.com/special-news-reports/20151112/median-real-estate-sales-prices-hit-10-year-high-across-southeast-michigan

By Charles Crumm, charlie.crumm@oakpress.com, @crummc on Twitter, Local News Editor Jeff Payne contributed to this report.

Morris Hagerman is a local real estate agent with Real Estate One in Royal Oak, Michigan.  He serves Berkley and the other Woodward 5 communities, including Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods.  Hagerman is also a member of the Berkley/Huntington Woods Area Chamber of Commerce.  You can contact him by phone at 248-854-8440, email at morrishagermanproperties@gmail.com or visit his web page.

Ferndale largest sale price, Oakland County is second

According to an examination of county records, the average median sale price of homes in Oakland County grow by 29.3% since 2009.  The county was only behind Washtenaw for the highest growth. For Oakland County communities, Ferndale out ranked all other Oakland County communities with a growth of 64% for the same period.  Ferndale was second for all communities in southeast Michigan

Here are details of the report.  This data was first published in the Detroit Free Press on October 11, 2014 and collected by Advertising that Works.

Median Home price
County	Livingston	Macomb	Oakland	Washtenaw	Wayne
2009	$156,000	$100,000	$145,000	$144,500	$72,000
2010	$155,000	$91,500	$138,500	$154,900	$59,000
2011	$162,000	$80,000	$140,000	$148,000	$50,000
2012	$169,000	$90,000	$150,000	$164,000	$56,150
2013	$184,900	$108,000	$174,000	$184,000	$70,000
2014 (year to date)	$196,900	$121,900	$187,500	$199,820	$76,300
% Change (2009 - 2014)	26.20%	21.90%	29.30%	38.30%	6.00%
Hot spots by county (for communities with a minimum of approximately 100 sales per year)
Macomb
Community	Chesterfield	Macomb	St. Clair Shores	Washington Twp.
2009	$125,000	$175,000	$81,000	$204,000
2010	$113,500	$175,250	$72,000	$175,000
2011	$125,500	$175,000	$67,500	$170,000
2012	$126,250	$195,000	$71,638	$186,500
2013	$157,000	$218,000	$87,000	$218,500
2014 (year to date)	$166,000	$225,838	$100,000	$249,500
% Change (2009 - 2014)	32.80%	29.10%	23.50%	22.30%
Hot spots by county (for communities with a minimum of approximately 100 sales per year)
Oakland
Community	Ferndale	Holly	White Lake	South Lyon	Southfield
2009	$75,000	$105,000	$145,300	$180,000	$70,000
2010	$72,500	$100,000	$147,250	$124,900	$68,000
2011	$64,500	$104,014	$150,000	$110,000	$61,000
2012	$65,000	$109,075	$160,000	$129,728	$60,844
2013	$105,000	$117,750	$187,500	$235,365	$75,000
2014 (year to date)	$123,000	$162,000	$214,500	$258,000	$98,000
% Change (2009 - 2014)	64.00%	54.30%	47.60%	43.30%	40.00%
Hot spots by county (for communities with a minimum of approximately 100 sales per year)
Wayne
Community	Inkster	Detroit	Hamtramck	Grosse Pointe Park	Grosse Pointe Farms
2009	$15,987	$18,900	$25,000	$188,000	$189,000
2010	$19,900	$15,513	$22,500	$183,100	$236,500
2011	$16,287	$16,000	$16,000	$200,000	$221,625
2012	$15,000	$20,000	$23,000	$220,000	$199,500
2013	$23,000	$26,500	$28,000	$216,000	$256,000
2014 (year to date)	$33,000	$29,843	$37,750	$280,880	$280,000
% Change (2009 - 2014)	106.40%	57.90%	51.00%	49.40%	48.10%
Hot spots by county (for communities with a minimum of approximately 100 sales per year)
Washtenaw
Community	Ypsilanti	Chelsea	Ann Arbor	Saline	Dexter
2009	$90,000	$150,000	$198,000	$187,000	$195,000
2010	$92,000	$157,400	$200,000	$190,000	$220,068
2011	$85,700	$145,000	$210,000	$210,000	$180,000
2012	$94,455	$175,000	$220,000	$207,000	$215,000
2013	$120,000	$188,000	$243,000	$215,000	$225,000
2014 (year to date)	$141,950	$222,450	$261,000	$239,000	$241,250
% Change (2009 - 2014)	57.70%	48.30%	31.80%	27.80%	23.70%
Hot spots by county (for communities with a minimum of approximately 100 sales per year)
Livingston
Community	Howell	Brighton
2009	$145,000	$175,000
2010	$142,750	$170,000
2011	$145,700	$185,250
2012	$158,000	$189,000
2013	$172,000	$215,000
2014 (year to date)	$186,750	$225,000
% Change (2009 - 2014)	28.80%	28.60%

Morris Hagerman is a local real estate agent with Real Estate One in Royal Oak, Michigan.  He serves Berkley and the other Woodward 5 communities, including Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak and Huntington Woods.  Hagerman is also a member of the Berkley/Huntington Woods Area Chamber of Commerce.  You can contact him by phone at 248-854-8440, email at morrishagermanproperties@gmail.com or visit his web page.

Macomb County housing prices spike by 46.2 percent

Macomb County housing prices spike by 46.2 percent

By Molly Tippen, The Macomb Daily

POSTED: 11/18/13, 10:42 AM EST | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO

Sellers in Macomb County continued to enjoy the upper hand in Southeast Michigan’s real estate market in October, with median home prices increasing by 46.2 percent over the same period in 2012.

The prices – which have been driven upward by dwindling inventory levels, still-low interest rates and a recovering local economy – increased from $82,000 in October 2012 to $119,900 this year, according to a report released by Farmington Hills-based Realcomp, which measures real estate activity in Southeast Michigan.

The increase is indicative of a sustained trend in Macomb’s real estate market, which has been growing steadily since early 2012, said Karen Kage, president of Realcomp.

“In Macomb, median prices are back up to 2008 levels, so from that perspective, things are better than they have been for five years,” she said. “It’s exciting news for people that are interested in placing their home on the market.”

Macomb’s prices, however, have not increased at the same rate as those in Oakland County, where median prices have reached 2007 levels, Kage said.

Although sales prices increased, the number of sales in the county was virtually flat. According to the report, sales increased by only .9 percent; 1,078 homes were sold in October 2013 versus 1,068 the previous year.

David Tuscany, a realtor with Re/Max Suburban in Sterling Heights, said there’s a natural drop off in sales in the fall that was punctuated by the government shutdown.

“It seems that our call volume is steady, but the shutdown slowed things down a little bit,” he said. “We didn’t have some of the things like down payment assistance and in some cases FHA mortgages, so financing was an issue for some buyers.

Inventory levels are still a big issue for buyers, said Tuscany.

“I think that right now, that’s the biggest challenge,” he said.

Sales by the numbers

Last month, sales activity in Macomb outpaced those recorded in Wayne County, which saw a 4.6 percent decrease in the number of homes that changed ownership. However, Oakland County homes sales increased by a brisk 10.8 percent.

But median sales in prices in Macomb County outpaced increases in Wayne and Oakland. In Wayne, sale prices increased 43.6 percent, from $52,225 in October 2012 to $75,000 in this year. Oakland County’s median prices increased from $147,000 to $174,500 – an increase of 18.7 percent.

Foreclosure sales in Macomb decreased by 32.3 percent, from 345 in October 2013 to 234 in October 2012, according to the Realcomp report.

The county’s inventory have decreased as well, meaning that a combination of limited availability and still-low interest rates are encouraging people buy and sell, said Tuscany.

“We are seeing people that are getting out-bid on properties,” he said. “The best advice I can give to sellers at this time is to make sure their home is priced right.”

According to Realcomp, listing levels have decreased by 10.9 percent in October, with 2,929 listings in October 2012 versus 3,287 in October 2013.

A badly-needed move

Although the fact that sellers stand a chance of getting a decent price for a home in today’s environment than they did three of four years ago, and interest rates are still low, practical matters are still driving sellers and buyers into the market.

Paul Hornung, who recently sold his home in Sterling Heights in favor of a colonial in Shelby Township, said his growing family spurred he and wife, Kimberly, to look for a new home.

“We were living in a house that was 920 square feet with three daughters,” he said. “Obviously, we need a little more space.”

To meet that end, the Hornungs looked at four houses in Macomb County before settling on a 2.5 bath, four-bedroom home near the Van Dyke-24 Mile Road corridor.

“When we walked into this house, we knew it was the one,” he said. “We weren’t in a rush to buy a home, but it turned out to be a good time to buy.”

Another big selling point for the Hornungs was the fact that the new home is close to Paul Hornung’s family.

“My daughters will go to the same elementary school and middle school that I went to, which is nice,” he said. “We’re really happy with our decision.”

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Morris Hagerman Real Estate One Website