Find the Best Mortgage Lenders in Detroit, MI

How to choose a mortgage lender in Detroit

Now is a great time to buy a house in Detroit. With more than 200 neighborhoods, the Detroit housing market has options for every budget. The downtown core and surrounding neighborhoods have some of the best houses on the market right now, with median values between $300,000 to $730,000. A few scattered high-end neighborhoods have even nicer homes with prices to match.

The Midtown and Downtown area lofts and condos are wildly popular, but are too pricey for many buyers. The price range in those areas isn’t the norm for Detroit, where the majority of neighborhoods are classified as up-and-coming or high-value for long-term investment.

Three bedroom homes in up-and-coming neighborhoods have a median value of $166,000, which is about 12 percent less than the national average of $188,000.

In investment neighborhoods, median price for a fully-renovated home of the same size is $69,333, a whopping 63 percent less than the national average. These neighborhoods also have a large amount of even cheaper homes, perfect for someone who enjoys renovations or has ever dreamed of flipping a house.

The best neighborhoods for first-time home buyers looking to move to the city are (from most expensive to least): Lafayette Park, East English Village, Bagley and North End. All four areas have rising home values and are popular among current residents and prospective buyers.

• Beautiful, modern lofts
• Millennial hotspot
• Proximity to restaurants, bars
• Lafayette Park

• Unique architecture
• Safe neighborhood
• Cultural diversity
• Neighborhood association
• Proximity to downtown
• Nearby shopping
• Proximity to I-94

• Nearby parks
• Proximity to universities
• Proximity to M-10
• Beautiful homes
• Quiet neighborhoods
• Active community
• Community and development planning underway

• Unique architecture
• Five minutes from downtown
• New developments underway
• Cultural diversity
• Creative/entrepreneurial community
• Proximity to multiple highways

A great resource on affordable housing in the City is the Detroit Land Bank Authority. For a closer look at Detroit’s neighborhoods, check out theneighborhoods.org, a publication of the City of Detroit.

If you’re serious about buying a home, the first thing to do is check your credit score and get pre-approved for a mortgage loan. Quicken Loans, headquartered downtown, is the metro Detroit area’s most popular mortgage lender.

Mortgages in Detroit are mostly conventional loans—with three to 20 percent of the purchase price up-front—and FHA loans, which are backed by the Federal Housing Administration and make it possible for people with not-so-great credit to obtain a mortgage. VA loans (for veterans) and USDA agricultural land loans (in eligible rural areas) are also popular with first-time homebuyers in Michigan.