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CURRENT EVENTS 

Such a deal: Buy a house, get a car free
In bleak market, builders pitch free furniture, TVs, appliances and no closing costs to sweeten deals. Tenisha Mercer / The Detroit  

With "For Sale" signs sprouting like weeds and the region's economy in a funk, home sellers and real estate agents are dangling incentives like never before to attract jittery buyers. Sellers are tossing in everything from flat-screen TVs to complimentary decorating to free car leases to close sales on homes. While such sweeteners are offered in markets around the country, they have become the price of doing business in Metro Detroit, where home prices are falling in many areas and listings have skyrocketed. Last fall, Seville Homes in Clinton Township began tempting home shoppers with choices that include a 52-inch TV, a stove-refrigerator-microwave package, a $2,500 Art Van Furniture gift certificate and free hardwood floors and granite countertops. "We're doing whatever we can to get them to buy," said Bob Mitchell, director of development for Seville Homes. Now the builder is planning to offer a new buffet of incentives that would allow buyers to get into a new home without paying closing costs, a down payment or mortgage payments for the first six months if they finance through LaSalle Bank. As builders enter the spring selling season, the deals are becoming nearly as commonplace as incentives in the automobile industry. A National Association of Home Builders survey of 500 builders in January found 41 percent are offering free appliances, 31 percent are paying closing fees and 15 percent are paying up-front financing.
For Zoe Rogers, 50, a $7,500 appliance package with a washer, dryer and stainless steel refrigerator, stove, microwave and dishwasher helped her decide on a home in Town Commons in Howell. The incentives were offered by Terra Land Group in Novi. "It made it even more appealing," Rogers said. "We already needed these things anyway, and it would have been an additional cost if we would have had to pay for them ourselves." Terra Land Group also offered some buyers a two-year lease on a Chevrolet Malibu last year. Now it's plying potential buyers of select homes with a $10,000 credit that they can use toward a Pottery Barn purchase or the purchase of a stainless steel stove, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher appliance package. "Everybody's doing it," said Kim Panosso, sales director for Terra Land Group. "In today's market, it's all about providing them with more value and making them feel more positive about their investment."
Bloomfield Hills-based Pulte Homes Inc., the nation's largest home builder, is offering a washer and dryer and blinds and window treatments to buyers at its Liberty Park townhouses in Novi. Winnick Homes is offering buyers at its Echo Park community in Southgate $5,000 toward free upgrades, according to the company's Web site. "Customers are shopping the market," said Mitchell, of Seville Homes. "They expect a deal when they come in." Competition rises while the nation's home market is starting to cool after a red-hot run, Metro Detroit has been feeling the chill for years. Home sales in Michigan dropped 10 percent last year compared to the previous year, according to a report by Real- comp II. In Metro Detroit, more homes were listed for sale last year and they were staying on the market longer than in previous years. In Oakland County, for example, the average days a house stayed on the market increased from 59 to 68. In Macomb County, the number of homes on the market increased from 2,564 to 4,012. The increased competition is changing how real estate agents do business. Beth Pressler once left decorating up to sellers, but more agents at the Higbie Maxon Agney office she manages in Grosse Pointe Farms now pay for a portion of professional decorating services to make their listings stand out. "You can't just put a 'For Sale' sign on the lawn anymore and hope the house will sell," Pressler said. "First impressions count, even more so now." Last month, Grosse Ile broker Jane Denning set up a booth at the Detroit Boat Show at Cobo Center to reach new buyers."We have to think outside of the box," said Denning of RE/MAX. "You have to do whatever you need to do to get market share. You can't do business the same way you used to."
Sellers must do more Claire Barton has always told sellers it's the little things that sell houses -- painting the foyer, replacing worn carpets and repairing leaky faucets. Now she advises clients to make small repairs, reduce the sale price or prepare to wait longer for their homes to sell. "Buyers have so many choices to choose from that they are either going to choose a competitively priced home or something they can move into right away with nothing to do," said Barton, co-owner of Remerica Hometown One in Plymouth. "The house has to be neat, clean and ready to show."
Southfield Realtor Monique S. Carter encourages sellers to offer one-year home warranties. She won't list a house that isn't in good condition -- clean, neat and freshly painted -- unless sellers agree to make improvements. "Back in the day, you could put a home on the market and it would sell itself," said Carter, a broker with Remerica MSC Realty in Southfield. "Now, if there are 20 houses on the block, seven of them are on the market. You have a lot of inventory and not enough buyers." Still, it's not all gloom and doom. The glut of homes on the market? Michigan Association of Realtors President Cathy Sherman Bittrick prefers to look at them as opportunities. "For every house that's on the market right now, there is a potential buyer," Bittrick said. "It's like saying, 'I'm hungry and you have a big bag of groceries on the counter. "You have to think about what you have, not what you don't have." You can reach Tenisha Mercer at (313) 222-2401 or tmercer@detnews.com. 

Local Current Events! 

Merit scholars
Eleven students from the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park (P-CEP) were named National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists this week. 

The students -- Canton High School seniors Julie Constantine and Nivedhitha Subramanian, Plymouth High School seniors Adam Davis, Liyan Liu and Xiwen Wang and Salem High School seniors Myron Chang, Yiyan Lu, Vikram Raghunathan, Trevor Sponseller, Teresa Wang and Stacy Yee -- rank in the top 1 percent of their peers across the nation. 

The National Merit Scholarship Program has named approximately 15,000 academically talented high school seniors as finalists. These seniors now have an opportunity to advance in the competition for 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards (about $32 million) to be offered next month. Students entered the National Merit and Achievement competitions by taking the 2004 PSAT/NMSQT. 

Students must fulfill several requirements to become a Finalist--record of very high academic performance in college prep course work, SAT scores that confirm the PSAT/NMSQT performance, detailed scholarship information about extracurricular activities and leadership positions, self-descriptive essays, and full endorsement of the high school principal. 

Plan calls for 1,400 new homes in southwest Canton
BY CAROL MARSHALL
STAFF WRITER
Canton's last big blast of residential building took a big step forward Monday, as the planning commission unanimously recommended approval of four preliminary planned unit development agreements. The PUDs will include some 1,400 homes to be built on more than 600 acres in the southwest corner of Canton, near Geddes and Denton roads. The four developments, which include single-family and condominium housing, offer a solution to what some have said is a challenge for Canton's development goals.
"This is a wonderful solution for this area of the township," Commissioner Greg Greene said Monday. "This solves a lot of problems," while allowing the township to finish planning this large undeveloped area. The developments represent the largest piece of undeveloped residentially zoned property in the township. According to municipal services projections, Canton's population, which is now just a little more than 85,000, will be up to 110,000 when the township is officially built out. When factored with Canton's master plan's density allowances, it is estimated that another 10,000 single- and multi-family homes can be constructed in Canton. So the PUD developments are in line with the town's goals. One of the challenges had been that the township planners had hoped that the area wouldn't be developed in a piecemeal fashion. Developer Richard Lewiston has proposed a plan in which all four developments will have matching entrances and boulevards and landscaping, street lighting and signage. Though the houses will be built in a variety of designs and at a wide range of price points, there will be some continuity in design, and more than five miles of biking and walking paths will connect them. "All four (developments) will share some common development guidelines," Planning Director Jeff Goulet said. "The projects will read as a whole so we don't feel that we have three or four subdivisions that look like 10 or 12 subdivisions. You'll feel like you're part of a larger community rather than unrelated subdivisions." One challenge that is more difficult to address is the school district, according to Canton resident Cecil Thomas.
The developments are in Van Buren Public Schools, but home buyers are willing to pay a premium to live in the Plymouth-Canton Public Schools district, according to Commissioner Greg Demopoulos. "It seems like the Van Buren district has little to any concern for Canton," Thomas said, and urged the developer to work with the school district in hopes that the district will plan for growth in Canton.
Lewiston's attorney, Bryan Amann, said that he hopes that the district will build a school on property adjacent to the developments. The district owns 24 acres near the PUDs. "I don't know, in light of the current politics, if we'll see anything there," Amann said. "But the occurrence of these homes will take away any excuse they've ever had of not having (a school) there." He added that it's possible that a charter school could be built nearby. All four preliminary PUDs were recommended for approval. The Canton Township board will discuss them at a public hearing before approving the preliminary plan. A formal agreement must then be made, and site plans will be need to be approved in public hearings. cmarshall@hometownlife.com | (734) 459-2700 Originally published January 26, 2006