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The real estate market in Washtenaw County continues to show improvement, according to sales figures released by the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors^®.

• December 2011 sales were just slightly more than December sales last year, at 326 units compared with 320 in 2010.
• A total of 4,064 units were sold for the year, which was 97 percent of total units sold in 2010.
• Dollar volume sold for the year is up 2 percent, thanks to a steady increase in sales price of residential properties.
• Average sales price for 2011 was $194,338, a 5 percent increase over the average sales price of $184,217 in 2010.

“The pattern of home sales in recent months demonstrates a market in recovery,” says Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors^® chief economist. “Record low mortgage interest rates, job growth and bargain home prices are giving more consumers the confidence they need to enter the market.”

As co-owner of Trillium Real Estate and 2012 President of the AAABoR^®, I believe it’s also important to note that these market improvements we are seeing locally occurred without any added incentives, like the first-time homebuyer federal tax credit that gave our market quite a lift in 2010. This trending upward is happening organically.

Based on information from the Ann Arbor Area Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service for the period 12/01/2011 through 12/31/2011.

Ring in the new year! My goal this year is to simplify, simplify and simplify some more. Let’s get rid of the stuff—in our heads, our houses and in what we buy!

Just before winter’s cold hit, I learned my furnace’s heat exchanger was cracked. Not good. Time to shop. One furnace company gave me a whole song and dance on super-high-efficiency furnaces, tax rebates and the like.

A simpler thermostat also means a happier me!

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m into saving energy just like the next gal, but when he started telling me this high-priced model was the Porsche of furnaces, I knew it wasn’t for me. I’m a 2003 Honda CR-V woman, and I’m not looking to upgrade anytime soon!

I kept shopping and opted for a perfectly fine 80 percent efficiency furnace that required no extra outside piping or chimney liners, and had no bells and whistles! It is simple and easy to repair, and has been tried and true for decades. I had it installed by an old-school furnace guy who threw in a non-programmable, simple-to-use thermostat that doesn’t need an IT person to operate!

With the money I saved on a simple furnace, I opted for upgrading my virtually nonexistent insulation. Even the furnace guys said insulation was truly the best bang for your buck.

Off I went shopping again, now for insulation. I decided on a longstanding reputable company that used environmentally friendly materials and was priced reasonably.

So for less than the price of one Porsche-style furnace, I was able to get a new furnace and insulate my basement, crawl space and attic!

I know some of you may be squirming that I chose simple and cheap in this modern day of “gotta have the best of the best of everything.” But I gotta tell you, the old cliché of “the simpler, the better” rings true for this woman!

I’ve been in property management since I can remember. Before I was born, my parents bought a small two-bedroom house that they rented out. And then they bought another and another…. By the time I was in high school, I was answering tenants’ questions, flipping apartments, and writing rental receipts.

I learned to do the usual business things, like screen tenants, chase down rents and run ads. But the unexpected things were the more important life lessons. Here are a few that opened my eyes:

Love and death

In one apartment I managed, there lived a sweet older couple. The wife passed on in the hospital and the husband missed his beloved dearly. A short time later, he died in their apartment, alone. In his hands were love letters dating back to 1945.

Mysteries

A second death occurred down the hall. The police carried out a body bag holding a twenty-something woman who had drowned in her tub. The officers said it appeared to be accidental. Or was it?

Sad clean-ups

Did you know that human blood requires a bio-hazard cleaning service? I learned that sad fact after one tenant killed himself with a gun. You gain quite a different perspective on life as you complete police reports, help a grieving family collect their loved one’s belongings, and do what it takes to clean up after death.

Friendships

While managing a 60-plus apartment building near Wayne State, I got acquainted with a professor and his brother during their five-year tenancy. But it was mostly collecting rent and saying hello in the hallway. Unexpectedly, and 22 years later, we enjoy an enduring friendship that includes sharing holidays and birthdays–as recently as last week.

Yes, managing property is a business with budgets, goals and objectives, but our investments house people’s lives, where the unexpected is bound to happen.

©2011 Trillium Real Estate

We’ve all been watching closely: how’s the market doing? Every day a new dispatch comes from the front lines: pending sales are up, mortgage rates are down—no, they’re up! no, they’re steady—inventory is too high, foreclosures are slowing—no, they’re up! no, they’re down.

It’s a roller coaster out there. Except in the bubble of Ann Arbor, where we’re steady and slowly rising. Home values have taken their hit, but they’re on the way up by the teensiest bit. Even values in nearby areas are doing well—or at least holding their own.

Here’s proof in this graph from Pete Hendershot at the Affinity Valuation Group that shows the rise in prices per square foot since July 2009. See what we mean by “teensiest”? And yet, up is out of sight in this economy.

©2011 Trillium Real Estate