August 2017 Real Estate Market Update – Oakland County, Michigan
We have your market update for August and we cannot wait to bring this to you. It's a lot of new information. No, I'm completely kidding. It's a lot of the same as we've been doing the last year and a half going on two years, but really the last year and a half. A lot of same information you're going to see here in a second. What is going on? We have added obviously the last couple times, we've added two years back since 2015. That way you can kind of see the trend and what's going on with the housing market. And again this is Oakland County, so this is all kind of Michigan, obviously one of the biggest counties here in Metro Detroit, so we want to give you a good snapshot of what's going on. That's where we're based as well, so going to make it easier for you there, but we're gonna jump right into it.
Days on Market
So we have 2015 at 45 days. We have 41 in 2016, 34 this past August. So again, that just goes to show you the pattern of what's going on. The pattern of less time when the market really alluded to the team we've had this entire time is a seller's market. So really quick for those of you before you go any further, those of you don't know me, I grew up here in Clarkston. We are in the Clarkston area obviously. We have our team here in downtown Clarkston, had this team for a handful of years and we really look forward to providing this value for you guys because this is something that for a long time. So we are super excited to give this to you guys. Every month we'd go back into the archives, go back on Facebook, go back on our YouTube channel you can check out for a number of years. Now us doing this, putting out content and putting out the market updates, you can see exactly what's going on in your area. That way you aren't at a loss for what's going on, you're digging through forums and weird google searches and things like that. So, again, days on market 45, 41, 34, this is a huge, huge decrease. Obviously 10 days, average days on market. The numbers are going to flush all this out and give you the reason as to why these numbers are trending downward.
Active homes on the market
Active homes on market until the 15. We had 10,000, little over 10,000 homes in the market this year from 2016. We thought that we had low inventory. We were thinking, “Wow, this, I just, I can't believe how low the inventory is.” Everyone across the real estate industry was thinking that, especially here in Metro Detroit. It was that 35 percent drop you have overthrown by just over a thousand homes. Less than last year. Then last August. So what this is, this is August number, so August 2015, August 2016, August 2017. So we had a huge drop off yours. Everyone thought we had a huge inventory shortage, big seller’s market even less here, over a thousand less. Again, just really digging into the numbers are going to show you exactly why this is, why there's less time in the market. There's just not as much available. So it's a real big play for sellers right now, looking to get equity out of their home. Hopefully, they're out of a bad situation, maybe they're underwater before and they're able to do that and get out of that.
Month of Inventory
A month of inventory is just kind of an indicator as to some of these numbers again that we're showing you here and these aren’t estimates, they are rounded. So they're not the exact decimal points were throwing in there, but four months, three months, two months of inventory. And just to give you a good idea, probably about four to six months is good inventory, probably four or five months where it's a stable market. So in 2015, 2014, we really saw a good stable market where buyers and sellers were fairly stable. And one didn’t necessarily have a huge advantage over the other, then you start getting into 2016 and it starts decreasing. Then here we have even been below two. So you're starting to see a huge, huge trend towards a seller's market, not a lot of homes available. So it makes it tough on buyers and it's awesome for sellers. The one silver lining obviously for buyers is that there's all-time, low-interest rates, something that we were just having seen before.
And to be quite honest with you, probably won't see again for a very, very long time, probably not in a lot of our lifetimes, but you never know. You never know.
New homes in the market
A new listing. Again, this number is fairly consistent. There is one kind of myth about real estate - that there's a bad time to buy, a bad time to sell. Technically, every time is a good time to sell or buy. Everything's relative, right? So we have new listings, not much different. You know, it's pretty consistent. And if you go back to all of our different videos, you're going to see that that's fairly consistent throughout everything. It's going to be fairly consistent, not much deviation through how many new listings are actually are.
Price per square foot
Again, this is going to show you the huge jump each year. $10 a year. It's jumping up, the average price per square foot sold. So when a house sells, what was the average price per square foot in Oakland County? Well, it was $103 in 2015, then $113, $123. That's huge jumps. I mean that's $20 jump in two years. So think about where we came from 2008 to 2009 and now to where we are today, it's just a massive change.
Sold
Last but not least - sold. Again, this number doesn't vary a ton. You can see, we still have a lot of people buying, a lot of people doing stuff. Obviously, there's just a lot less to choose from. So you had the almost exact same numbers these two years, 2015 and 2017, a little bit less last year actually last August, but these two numbers almost identical, so the same number of houses being sold, but when there's less inventory and they're still that same demand or there could be more demand than prices go up. So price to go up, days on market, come down and then what we have is a seller's market.
So I hope that gives you a little look into what's going on in the market right now, currently right these second things have gotten just a little bit slower, which is very natural as the back to school time, Labor Day. The biggest slowdowns really of the year in Michigan are January and February or you know, you could say after the Thanksgiving holiday, but after the holidays into maybe say February and then you have Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. Those are the three weeks during the summer and then maybe two months or so in the winter and the end of winter, depending on what kind of winter it is. If it's not a really bad winter, things still are moving pretty good. So, this has given you a window into what's going on in the market right now and let you know really a great sellers’ market buyers.
Again, just to recap quick buyers, their silver lining is that there are an all-time low, historically low interest rates, a great time for sellers, a really good time for buyers too. If you can find a deal - there are deals out there. We have deals that are off the market, a pocket listing, things like that, things that are coming on the market soon. There are deals out there to be had. So knowing the right people is obviously a very huge and part of the battle as a consumer trying to find your way throughout the real estate market. But there are deals out there and you have all-time low-interest rates as a buyer. So if you're going to lock something in, that's huge. Again, I would rather that we might throw a link in here to some of our global insiders' reports. Those go into more of the macroeconomy. This is the micro look, obviously. Oakland County more than macro look and just the potential for the economy going forward. Just the forecast as to what we see and what I see something. I study consistently every single day, all the time. And I guarantee that something you're not gonna find anywhere else other than here. We have the Insiders, of course, we hit it hard, we go hard and there's no pull, no punches pulled, that's for sure. So we're going to tell you straight and honest and tell you exactly what the economy is going towards and what it’s trending like and what's probably gonna happen in the near future.
I'll leave you with this. It kind of goes in at seven to nine-year cycles when you're eight or nine from the last crash, last correction or crash. Take that as food for thought and just think about that going forward. So that's your August market update. Again, I'm Brandon Gentile and the founder of Mitten Made Properties here at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. We look forward to servicing you. Most importantly, we look forward to giving you an awesome, awesome content to consume. I know many of you are even watching us, wherever and you're enjoying it. This would give you a snapshot. At least have a small snapshot of what's going on in the country as a whole, so we appreciate you and your time. We know your time and energy is more valuable than anything, so I really, really, really, greatly appreciate your time and your energy. If you know anyone at all that might be thinking of jumping into the market or might want this information or maybe just talking about or whoever, please share this with them. Tag them, whatever it may be. Send them a message, private message, direct message, whatever. Just please share this with somebody that you think might be wanting it. We appreciate you guys a ton and we look forward to seeing you very soon.