Andrew Dodson’s report for MLive says that Bay City, Michigan’s decline in real estate sales year-over-year is a reflection of national trends.

October home sales in Bay County were down 6.5 percent, the second consecutive month of declines. 1,041 homes have sold in 2014, down from 1,052 a year ago at this time, or 1.05 percent slide. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) indicates a similar trend.

“Inventory is constantly an issue and when I tell people in the public that, they are shocked,” said Cindy Gregory, a Realtor  ® with Ayre/Rhinehart Bay Realtors. “We’re begging people to find out who wants to sell — we have many more buyers than sellers at this point,” Jean Ann Deshano, a Realtor  ® with Remax Results, said.

Dodson tells MHProNews that, “The average price of a home in Bay County in October was $90,145, up nearly 18 percent from a year ago when the average home sold for $76,441. For the year, the average home in the county is selling for $83,367, up 11 percent from $75,084 a year ago.”

The NAR says that the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) for existing housing (resales) through September was at 5.17 million for 2014.

Shortage of Affordable Housing Opportunity in disguise for manufactured and modular housing?

In neighboring Ohio at The Greens of Vista near Zanesville, Realtor ® Bobbi Lepi teamed up with Williams-Burg Square to market manufactured and modular homes. In the next in a periodic series of interviews soon to be released on ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com, Lepi talks candidly about her and her home buyers impressions of modern manufactured homes.

When one looks at the volume of housing resales taking place in Bay City, MI – and compares that with manufactured housing shipment levels in most states in the U.S. – it becomes clear that even a modest size town is outselling many states total new manufactured home sales.

With some 5 million resales and 1 million new SF and MF housing units expected for 2014 – compared to under 70,000 new HUD Code homes expected to be shipped for 2014 – the sheer magnitude of the opportunity for factory built housing professionals who engage realtors and other housing professionals begins to open up the mind.

Manufactured housing pros will have an opportunity at the rapidly–approaching Louisville Show to learn more about ways to tap into the growing demand for quality affordable living all around them. Information on business building seminars, free to MH professionals attending the event, is available at this link. ##

(Photo credit: MLive)

(Editor’s Note: See related report – Back to the Future for Manufactured Housing Pros – Industry in Focus, MHProNews.com at this link.)