Home sales across southeast Michigan took the largest year-over-year hit in October since May 2020, falling 28.3 percent, according to the regional housing report from RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan in Troy. Last month’s sales fell from 4,149 units to 2,973 unit year-over-year, and dropping from 3,431 from September 2022.
“The fall market has a very localized dynamic. In some areas, homes may be on the market for a few months, and in other areas, homes still have multiple buyers interested and are selling in a couple of weeks,” says Jeanette Schneider, president of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan. “Rising interest rates have some buyers pausing their home search, but this provides the buyers that remain active in the market with a less competitive environment overall.”
The area’s median sales price is up 4.3 percent from October 2021, jumping from $269,375 to $281,050 while seeing a slight rise month-over-month from $279,750. The average number of days homes spent on the market rose four days from last year to 31, and two days from last month.
The months’ supply of homes, of which a six months’ supply is considered balanced, is hovering around the same amount at 2.5 months, the same as last year and a 0.2 months’ increase month-over-month. Pending home sales also took a major hit, dropping from 4,024 in October 2021 to 3,034 this October. It also fell from 3,225 pending sales last month.
Broken down into county-specific data, Oakland County saw the largest sales drop, moving from 1,527 to 1,059, or 30.6 percent. Livingston County was close behind, dropping 29.9 percent from 231 sales to 162, with Wayne County not far behind it, falling 28 percent from 1,708 to 1,230 sales. Macomb County dropped from 683 sales to 522, or 23.6 percent, and the city of Detroit fell only 2.3 percent, from 342 to 334.
The median sales price, contrarily, rose the most in Detroit, jumping 13.9 percent from $70,000 to $79,700. Livingston County rose 7.2 percent from $346,00 to $370,750, or 7.2 percent, while Oakland County rose 4.6 percent from $325,000 to $340,000. Macomb County saw a 3 percent increase from $231,500 to $238,450, or 3 percent, and Wayne County remained unchanged with an average of $175,000.
The average number of days a home spent on the market saw the smallest increases in the city of Detroit and Oakland County, moving from 43 days to 46 — 7 percent — and 28 days to 30 —7.1 percent — respectively. Livingston County moved from 27 to 30 days on average, or 11.1 percent. Wayne County increased 18.5 percent from 27 days to 32, while Macomb County jumped 30.4 percent from 23 to 30 days.
