The housing market in Michigan's Great Southwest was on a record tear for more than four straight years from 2016 until 2020, as the local market experienced what local Realtor's Association Executive Alan Jeffries characterizes as "A rush of peak sales and selling prices." Things were truly heady. In fact, by the end of 2020 he says, "The market had celebrated four straight years of peak prices and sales." Then, along came the COVID pandemic, and by the time the state's shutdown had ended in April of 2021 homebuyers had swept up the available inventory. As a result, by the start of 2022, the local inventory had shrunk to a historically low level of just 1.9-months supply, and the year ended with a small rise to a 3.3-months supply. Jeffries tells us that in December of 2022, the number of houses sold was down fully 44-percent as compared to December of 2021 with just 167 homes sold, as compared to 296 in the previous year. At 167, the number of sales
The arrival of wintry weather has done more than chill the neighborhood substantially, the onset of falling temperatures has also seen the housing market in Southwestern Michigan cool rather markedly. That's the assessment of Alan Jeffries, Association Executive for the Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors. Jeffries says, "As the temperatures cooled off, the Southwest Michigan local housing market continued to cool also," adding, "We have now experienced eleven consecutive months in 2022, where home sales have declined when compared to the same month in 2021." Local home sales in November dropped 19-percent from sales a month earlier in October of 2022 (277 vs. 340). Despite the fall-off, selling prices increased modestly. Jeffries notes, "The bright spot in November was that the Freddie Mac mortgage rate decreased to 6.49 from 7.08 in October." Jeffries report from the SWMAR shows that in November the number of houses sold fell to 277 from 3