Approved mortgages double in Detroit in 2018

[Worldsgreatest]

Detroit hits mortgage milestone as housing market gains momentum

For the past decade, it’s been almost impossible for aspiring Detroit homebuyers to get mortgages.

But that appears to be changing. The city notched a real estate milestone of sorts last year, recording more than 1,000 new home mortgages in 2018.
That’s according to the Detroit Land Bank Authority. Its data show that 1,221 homebuyers purchased homes with traditional mortgages last year.

Linn says another good sign is that mortgage-backed homebuying is spreading to more neighborhoods.

“When we first started looking at this, mortgages were really more or less tightly confined to the city’s most elite, strongest housing market,” he said. “I think over time, we’ve seen more and more neighborhoods sort of added to that group, it’s becoming much more sort of a widespread geographic distribution.”

Land bank data show that home sales prices are on the rise, too—jumping from around $33,000 in 2014 to more than $74,000 in 2018.

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/de...gains-momentum

[mwilbert]

I think both of the following are true.

The availability of conventional mortgages in the city is a substantial advance toward normality.

Just because mortgages are available doesn't mean you should buy a house.