"katy" wrote in message
...
Dave wrote:
On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:29:41 -0500, katy

said:


Michigan is still small farm based...as are several other states...


Perhaps. But according to a 1991 study at the University of Michigan the
number of family farms declined from 77,946 in 1969 to 51,172 by 1991. I
doubt that the trend has reversed itself in the last 15 years.

No, it hasn't...and for a very good reason. Developers have exploited
good farm land, forcing townships to raise the value of raw land to a
point where the tac structure alone became a burden to farmers, driving
them off the land. When your farm is making less and less profit and some
developer comes along and offers you a bushel of money for it, you take it
and to hell with the farm, even though you ahve no idea what else you'll
do for a living. Problem is, now that all taht good farmland has been
turned into residential and commercial development, real estate is now
devaluing rapidly. The economy in MI is at an alltime low and people are
leaving the state in droves because of the job market not being able to
support the population. We are in a fortunate position where we do not
have to make a low sale on our house just to get out from under it, but
many in the state will be taking big losses, especially those who bought
the over-inflated pricey real estate in the first place. The whole thing
is a sad situation...onl;y people who benefit are the devlopers and the
realtoes....

Katy, with the exception of waterfront property, there is probably no real
estate in the state of Michigan that's significantly overvalued. Even the
waterfront property, probably. Agreed, the real estate market in Michigan is
fairly poor, but there's the economy again. Now soCal and soFla are another
story entirely. I've read recently that some areas may be overvalued by as
much as 40%.

John Cairns