A new report says home sale prices fell in 19 of 20 major American cities last year. The exception was Detroit.
Standard & Poors follows monthly and yearly home sale prices. Maureen Maitland is an S&P vice president. She says Detroit’s home sale prices bucked the national downward trend last year and actually rose by half a percent in 2011.
Maitland says a few factors are working in Detroit’s favor.
“(Home sale prices) really couldn’t fall much lower. It really had bottomed out. It really had suffered a lot in the past two or three years," said Maitland, "But secondly, the auto industry is picking up. So, on a relative basis, there may be a few more jobs coming into the Detroit market.”
Maitland says it will take another five to seven months of sustained growth to suggest Detroit’s housing market might finally be on the rebound.
And in December, home prices declined slightly in Detroit.
Detroit homes are selling now at prices that haven’t been seen since the mid-1990’s.
