Good news from Michigan: Detroit led all Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with a 14.6 percent quarterly gain in January, according to the Home Data Index from Clear Capital. The jump follows a 14.1 percent increase in November 2009 and 17.4 percent rise in December.

But the price increases in Detroit come on the back of a steep decline. “Detroit always raises eyebrows. But we have to put it in perspective in terms of how far these prices have fallen. In Detroit, we’re talking a nearly 80 percent drop from the peak,” said Alex Villacorta, senior statistician at Clear Capital. He added that what’s driving demand is the lower end of the housing market in Detroit. The first-time homebuyer tax credit, a larger buying pool for consumers and an increase in investor presence stirs the activity in the lower-tier market in Detroit. “When you break it out by the top-price tier and lower-price tier, you do see a dichotomy starting to form. In Detroit, there is a 17 percent quarter-over-quarter change at the low end, whereas in the high end, it’s closer to 4 percent,” says Villacorta.

Industrial employment in Illinois fell 5.7 percent over the past 12 months, according to the 2010 Illinois Manufacturers Directory, an industrial directory published annually since 1912 by Manufacturers’ News Inc. (MNI), Evanston, IL. MNI reports Illinois lost 51,925 industrial jobs and 709 manufacturers between November 2008 and November 2009, more than double the loss reported in the year before, and one of the sharpest declines MNI has ever reported in the 98 years it has been tracking the state’s industry.

“It’s a perfect storm of negative conditions,” says Tom Dubin, president of Manufacturers’ News. “The country has suffered deep losses in manufacturing employment due to automation and technology, outsourcing and the recession. Combine that with Illinois’s high taxes, deficit spending and generally unfavorable business climate, and it’s easy to see why the state has shed thousands of industrial jobs.”

The Twin Cities new-home industry has hit a bottom in terms of activity, although a full market recovery cannot happen until the job market begins to improve, according to Metrostudy. “The good news is that for the first time in almost five years, quarterly housing starts increased in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter of 2008,” says Ryan Jones, director of Metrostudy’s Twin Cities division. The rate of job losses (2.7 percent) throughout the Twin Cities’ 13-county market area, remained elevated as more than 52,000 jobs were lost in the 12 months ending in December. While job losses remain a concern, the unemployment rate has likely hit its peak and is beginning to stabilize. It has dropped to approximately 7.2 percent, well below the national level. At the end of the fourth quarter, there were 3,051 new single-family homes in inventory in the Twin Cities market, including 1,548 under construction, 1,115 finished vacant and 388 model homes. New-home inventory levels continued to decline and were 30 percent lower than the previous year at the end of the fourth quarter. As the pace of closings declined, housing supplies remained slightly elevated at just less than eight months of supply.

Existing-home sales decreased 31.4 percent in December, according to new figures released by the South Central Kansas MLS. Existing-homes sales in December totaled 487, down from 710 units in November 2009. The median sales price of existing homes in December increased 4.3 percent on a year-over-year basis. The December median sale price of new homes increased to $185,000 from $166,240 in November 2009. New- and existing-home inventory combined was 3,710 homes, compared to 3,837 in October, representing a 3.3 percent decrease. One year before, the combined inventory was 3,617, which represents 2.6 percent increase in total inventory.