According to the latest regional housing report from RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan in Troy, the trend of home sales falling has continued, dropping 32.8 percent, from 3,752 in December 2021 to 2,521 in December 2022.
Despite this major year-over-year drop, the decline from November 2022 was 22 sales.
“A return to seasonality in the market contributed to the drop in home sales over last year. As we see a return to a more balanced market, buyers and sellers are able to negotiate, and sellers no longer have the solid upper hand they had the past couple of years,” says Jeanette Schneider, president of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan.
“This is ultimately healthy for the market overall and is especially good news for buyers still dealing with low inventory and affordability issues. We anticipate that 2023 will continue to be a fairly neutral market that doesn’t specifically favor buyers or sellers.”
The median sales price dropped from $263,875 to $257,975, or 2.2 percent, year-over-year. The price drop was more significant month-over-month, dropping from $271,685. Homes are taking longer to sell, increasing to 34 in November 2022 and 41 in December 2022 from 33 days in December 2021, marking steady increase.
The months supply of homes, of which six is considered balanced, continues its steady climb. Sitting at 2.9 months now, it has increased nearly a half point — from 2.5 — month-over-month, and from 1.4 year-over-year.
The pending number of sales is down big year-over-year, too, from 2,734 to 2,064 — 24.5 percent. Month-over-month, the decrease is more significant, down from 2,819.
Broken down to county-specific data, Macomb County saw the largest drop, moving from 656 to 382, or 41.8 percent. Livingston and Oakland counties took the second biggest home sale hits year-over-year, dropping 38.3 percent from 193 to 119 and 35.2 percent from 1,305 to 845, respectively. Wayne County saw a drop of 26.5 percent, from 1,598 to 1,175, and the city of Detroit dropped from 369 sales to 346 — 6.2 percent.
The median price fell 17.2 percent in the city of Detroit, from $80,000 to $66,250. Oakland County fell from $320,000 to $300,000, or 6.3 percent. Wayne County fell from $170,000 to $162,000 — 4.7 percent — and Macomb County fell 2.4 percent from $225,500 to $220,000. Livingston County was the only to mark an increase, moving up 2.9 percent from $340,000 to $349,900.
Oakland and Livingston counties saw modest increases in the average number of days spent on the market, increasing 11.4 percent from 35 days to 39 and 13.2 percent from 33 days to 38. Macomb County and the city of Detroit increased similarly, with Macomb jumping from 34 to 43 days — or 26.5 percent — and 40 days to 51, or 27.5 percent. Wayne County saw the largest increase, jumping 40 percent from 30 to 42 days.
