Housing Market Showed Improvement in 2012

The local housing market showed signs of improvement in 2012. Gary Walter of the Southwest Michigan Association of Realtors says they feel last year was a turning point. The numbers showed solid increases in both the number of homes sold and in dollar volume. There were 555 more homes sold in the region in 2012 than the year before. That's an increase of 24%. And since they were able to sell more homes without sacrificing selling prices, total sales volume was up too - up almost 30% with a total dollar volume of almost $493 million and and average sale price of about $169,000. That number was 4% better than 2011. Economists say pent up demand is sustaining the market. Walter says it looks as if the local market has bottomed out and should continue to improve.