Metro Detroit real estate agents sold a few more homes in a little less time during 2011 compared with the previous year, although price trends were mixed across the region, according to year-end data from Farmington Hills-based Realcomp II Ltd.
The multilisting service reported a total of 51,531 residential sales in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties last year, about a 2.2 percent increase from 50,433 in 2010. The average time on the market also decreased, to 90.4 days per property from 94.7 — down almost 5 percent.
But modest recoveries for median sale price in Oakland and Livingston were not enough to offset larger drops in Wayne and Macomb. The median declined almost 1.5 percent for the region as a whole, to $66,896.
Foreclosure sales also dropped slightly across metro Detroit, to 21,597 from 22,685.
Sales for the last half of 2011 were up 9 percent from the same period in 2010. In the first half of 2011, sales declined 4.22 percent compared with the year-ago period, when the residential market was still enjoying a tailwind from federal tax incentives.
All four counties posted sales increases in December compared with a year earlier, and all saw the median sale price increase over the year-ago period except Livingston, which was off 6 percent.
Total metro Detroit sales for the month were up 5.6 percent compared with one year earlier.
