It’s a mixed bag of residential real estate numbers this month, in our exclusive MoodyOnTheMarket.com ‘first look’ from the Southwest Michigan Association of Realtors. More sales in the short term—but buyers faced continued higher prices and dramatically higher interest rates when compared to the past two years.
Here are the details from SWMAR:
In August, the SWMI housing sales reached the highest point for the year, which is a good note for the end of the summer’s peak selling season. However, this sales level was below the sales level in August for the last ten years. Year-to-date sales followed the same story.
The number one factor remains the extremely low inventory of houses available for sale. At the end of August, there were 848 houses for sale across Allegan, Berrien, Cass, and the westerly 2/3 of Van Buren Counties. According to 2021 census data, there were 77,308 households in Berrien County alone. In August 2022 there were 884 houses for sale.
The inventory of houses for sale fell 4 percent below the level available a year ago (848 vs. 884). With the lower sales volume, the months-supply level increased slightly to 4.9 from 4.0-months supply from a year ago for homebuyers. For comparison, in August 2010, there were 3,757 houses for sale for a 17.8-months supply of houses.
The second factor slowing down the market has been the increasing interest rate. The Freddie Mac mortgage rate in August was 7.18, up from 6.81 in July for a 30-year conventional mortgage. In August 2022, the rate was 5.55; in August 2021, the rate was 2.87.
The third crushing factor for homebuyers is that home selling prices increased and reached peak levels every month since May.
August house sales were down 8 percent from August 2022 (315 vs. 340). Year-to-date in August, 1860 houses were sold, compared to 2185 houses in August 2022, for a 15 percent decline in sales.
The average selling price in August 2023 increased 11 percent to $396,933 compared to $356,179 in August 2022. Year-to-date, in August 2023, the average selling price rose 6 percent to $356,101 from $335,462 in August 2022.
The median selling price in August 2023 at $281,000 rose 13 percent from $248,750 in August 2022. Year-to-date, the median selling price increased by $10,000 ($255,000 vs. $245,000).
The median price is the price at which 50% of the homes sold were above that price and 50% were below.
The total dollar volume in August 2023 dropped 3 percent compared to August 2022 ($124,889,612 vs. $ 121,100,896). The year-to-date total dollar volume fell 10 percent ($662,266,254 vs. $ 732,985,567).
The number of bank-owned or foreclosed homes as a percentage of all transactions increased to 3 percent from 1 percent in July. It was 1 percent in August 2022. The previous lowest percentage was 0 percent in August 2021, and the highest percentage in August was 36 percent in 2009.
This data reflects home sales across Allegan, Berrien, Cass, and the westerly 2/3 of Van Buren Counties and should not be used to determine the market value of any individual property. If you want to know the market value of your property, please contact your local REALTOR®.
