Grand Rapids Business Journal
Housing Michigan, a coalition of over 20 statewide organizations and dozens of other regional groups, including the Home Builders Association of Michigan, Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Municipal League, Housing Next and many others, unveiled its legislative agenda last week in Lansing.
The agenda is focused on addressing the state’s housing crisis through a series of bipartisan legislative initiatives.
“(It) was a good day for Michigan as we addressed in a bipartisan manner a very serious issue the state’s growing housing crisis,” said Dawn Crandall, incoming executive vice president for government relations for the Home Builders Association of Michigan. “We cannot stress enough the urgency with which we need to focus on the legislative initiatives introduced (last week). We represent a diverse coalition of partners, but we speak with one voice because so much of our state’s economic future depends on our success.”
Victory sponsors bills to incentivize affordable housing investments hollandsentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hollandsentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Grand Rapids Business Journal
GRAR says first-time homebuyers especially are struggling in a hot market.
Rapids/Kentwood area, and the income needed to be able to afford such a home is about
$67,000 per year. Photo by iStock
While workers in the Grand Rapids-Wyoming metro area have seen their wages grow by 5.2% over the past six years, the area’s average sale price for a single-family home has increased 64.5% during the same period.
According to the Greater Regional Alliance of Realtors, the average home sales price went from $152,274 in January 2015 to $248,170 this January.
According to GRAR, 99.6% of single-family homes sold above the list price in January 2021 compared to 96% in January 2015. The average number of days a single-family home was on the market in 2015 was 71, compared to 34 this year.
Strong demand seen for construction, remodeling in Northern Michigan sooeveningnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sooeveningnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The road to 16 new building sites in a small west Michigan town won’t be built until spring, but potential homebuyers in Newaygo already are envisioning what it could be like to live in the subdivision just north of the Muskegon River.
In this small town with few available houses and about one-third of homes built before World War II, competition for homes gets just as fierce as in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor or northern Michigan.
Realtors expect floor plans in River Hills Estate such as “London,” a bilevel with a 2-car garage starting at $175,000, and “Reno,” with three bedrooms and baths starting at $220,000 to attract people who want to live in the city, but not in a starter home or fixer-upper.