H OUSING N EWS R EPORT
April 2016
all single family and condo purchases in the city of Flint during the first two months of 2016, an astounding 79 percent were purchased by all-cash buyers — up from 74 percent cash buyers the year before and up from 67 percent in 2013 before the city switched its water source. By comparison, 49percent of homepurchases in all of Genesee County, where Flint is located — in the first two months of the year were purchased by cash buyers, down from 50 percent the year before and down from 59 percent in 2013. Nationwide, 33 percent of home sales were to all-cash buyers in the first two months of 2016, down from 37 percent a year ago and down from 45 percent in 2013. The foundation for the Flint water crisis was laid in April 2014 when the city decided to switch its water source from Detroit water to the Flint River. The domino effects from that decision started with a relatively innocuous boil water advisory in August 2014 and escalated exponentially in September 2015 Continued Next Page
Michigan Association of Realtors.
“Initially we had a couple of lenders that started to balk, but we called them in and told them these houses are not in the city of Flint. … we are not on the Flint system, and we didn’t have a problem,” said Theodoroff, an associate broker at Piper Realty Company who lived in the city of Flint for 25 years before moving in October 2014, in the midst of the unfolding water crisis. “The suburbs got a bit shaky for about a week, and so we called in all the lenders and said look, these are not in the city of Flint … and so all their underwriters loosened up quite a bit.” Theodoroff added that even within the city of Flint, lenders are still will to lend “as long as you present them with a water test.” While lenders might be willing to lend in Flint, it’s evident from RealtyTrac public record loan data that not many home purchases are utilizing that lending — a pattern that was evident even before the water crisis but is even more clear in the wake of the crisis. Of
Chris Theodoroff President East Central Michigan Association of Realtors Flint, Michigan “ Initially we had a couple of lenders that started to balk, but we called them in and told them these houses are not in the city of Flint. … we are not on the Flint system, and we didn’t have a problem. ”
SOURCE: RealtyTrac
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