May 2020 Real Estate Market Update Livingston County, Michigan

We have your May 2020 Livingston County Real Estate Market Update. So let's jump right into this thing. I hope - number one, you guys are safe, well, happy, spending some time with family and getting used to the new normal. And hopefully the new normal doesn't stay normal for too long. But let's jump right in this. I always give you three years of data because the trend is your friend. You want to see three years. If you just saw one year, it wouldn't make any sense. We have the month in arrears because we have all the data now. It's hot off the press and we have it for you. So let's jump right into this. We're going to see a lot of crazy things like we did last month and it's probably gonna continue in the future. So let's dive right into this.

Days on market

DOM - Anytime you see that, average days on market. Thirty-five two years ago, 47 last year and 54 this year. So again, we're seeing all these numbers change a lot from what we've seen over the last five years since we started doing these videos.

The active number of homes in the market

Six hundred sixty-eight two years ago, 767 last year, 688 this year. We're seeing this pretty much exact same type of numbers go bell curve, a bell-shaped curve here across the counties. But this is a one day number. This is when data was taken, how many active listings were on the market at that given time? So just FYI there,

Months of inventory

That is at the rate homes are selling, how long would it take to sell every last home with no new home selling? That's what that is right here. I'll give you context here in a second. We had two months of inventory in 2018, two months in 2019, and then six, tripled in this past May in 2020. That is a huge jump. Just for context, one to three months is a seller's market. Meaning there is not a ton of supply and prices are going up. Then four to six months is a balanced market. We're at the top end of the balanced market. Then seven plus is a buyer's market. Meaning it's a better time for buyers. So be careful when you hear - I see Zillow and a lot of different things always say, "Oh, the good market, the bad market, whatever." They don't know what they're talking about that. You got to actually pay attention to data, months of inventory. You got to look at these things and see where you're at in those cycles. That's hugely important.

Number of new listings in the market

These are actual homes that are listed on the market that month. So this is a month-wide number. Five hundred forty-four two years ago, 579 last year and 509 this year. Not too much of a decrease actually. So going forward, hopefully, there's more on the market. This is a little bit more in line with what we've been seeing over the last few years, which is good. It's a good sign.

Price per square foot

It's $150 a square foot two years ago, $154 last year, $155 this year. Again, we're seeing the prices up because inventory is down. The buyer pool has dropped off but inventory is still way down. We're seeing a really big, or necessarily not at a huge change in the price as of right now. If you want to get an actual appraisal on your home, you have to get an actual appraiser or you have to have a professional, someone on our team, come out and give you an appraisal on your home, give you a value of your home. Remember, this is a countywide number. If you take this and multiply it by your square footage, it'll give you about what your home is worth.

Number of sold

Three hundred five two years ago, 337 last year, then 112 this year. So that's people actually sitting at the closing table, signing the documents to close on a house. Down 60%, 70%, 75% in a lot of cases. This is unbelievable. We're seeing this across the board. That number hopefully changes here, because we've seen a little uptick in homes actually listed going forward. So hopefully that changes, but really some fascinating numbers. We're going to be doing this. Like I said, through hell or high water I'm gonna be doing this, giving you these stats. A home is most people's biggest investment they make in their lives. We're definitely going to be doing this always no matter where we are, that way we get the information to you and you can make the best decision for you and your family.

So that's the Livingston County update for May 2020 guys. I appreciate you guys. As always, if you're on the podcast, go to @legacygroupmi, go question comment, the concern there. We will answer them. And if you know anyone in the area, please share it, tag them in it and we'll help in any way, shape, or form. We can so appreciate you guys spending your time with us. It's the most important asset we have. We'll see you at the next one.