The strength of this market should be good news to home owners who saw their personal wealth grow by tens of thousands of dollars during the past five years through huge appreciation in their house values. Some seriously underpriced communities saw house values leap by much more. Several areas of Detroit, for example had average house prices climb by 90 to 100 percent. Some underpriced close-in suburbs like Ferndale, Oak Park and Melvindale saw gains of 80 to 100 percent. These home buyers tend to be high middle management workers, who may feel insecure during today's cutbacks.
Demand varies too by geography.
The chart to the left shows average metro Detroit house prices as they've jumped in the past five years and how they've behaved in the past three months. It's important to take any three-month change with a scoop of salt. As home ownership goes, that's a very short time. And in smaller communities, the number of house sales in a three-month period is too small to make good statistics. You can feel more confident about data from larger cities like Farmington Hills, with 210 house sales, or Sterling Heights, with 184.