Real Estate crisis touches EUP

A nationwide housing credit crisis, Michigan’s precarious economy, and a number of other factors have conspired together to make the local real estate market about as flat as it has been since Kincheloe Airbase closed, according to local officials.

Although the Eastern Upper Peninsula is viewed as a “stable” housing market, not nearly as susceptible to wide swings of nationwide trends, Chippewa County Register of Deeds Sharon Kennedy indicated there is no denying that times are less than good in real estate these days.Kennedy said foreclosure filings so far in 2007 are about twice the average from recent years, with 81 on record so far this year. That is up dramatically from the 67 registered all last year and a recent average of about 40 repossessions per year dating back to 2001.

Kennedy warned against reading too much into the foreclosure statistics, saying the Register of Deeds has no way of checking whether or not foreclosures recorded continue on to full repossession.