February 2019 Real Estate Market Update – Genesee County, Michigan

We have your 2019 February Market Updates for Genesee County. Let's jump right into this.

I preface every single market update. We've been doing these for years now and giving you guys value in this information. This is county-wide data. This is for the month previous and arrears because we have all the information. It's just like getting the jobs report on the first Friday after every month ends, right? It's now hot off the press. We have all the data and I also give three years of data. That way you guys can see a pattern. So for those people watching on the live stream, you can see all the data and for those on the podcast, you're going to hear the data but you got to be able to see a pattern in order for this to make sense. If I just showed you this year, it wouldn't make any sense to you. So let's jump right into this. Like I said, Genesee County.

Days on Market

The very first one is days on market (DOM). That's what you see that anywhere and eliciting ticket or something like that. That means days on market. The average was 80 and 2017. Three years we have been '17, '18, '19 obviously for February. We have 80, 64 and 59, a sharp decrease every single year in the days on market. Again leading us to what we've been experiencing, which is that seller-driven market. Low inventory, but a seller-driven market and a seller's market if you will.

Active Homes in the Market

This is just a one day snapshot of what's going on in the market. 1278 down to 994 down to 737 so that's just a day at the end of the month that we choose when we picked the data. That's at any given time how many homes are actually active on the market. We do this in three years that way you can see the data as a pattern and it's an incredible decrease over the last three years of what's been happening in the market. A sharp decrease. I mean almost half from two years ago on the number of homes on the market. It's incredible.

Month of Inventories

So that's what that means. At the rate that homes are selling, how long would it take for every single home to sell if no new homes came on the market? So we had four, four and then two. So we had fairly similar data there in '17 and '18 and then down to two months of inventory, which is incredible. Just so you guys know, months of inventory, what that means basically is one to three months is a seller's market. There's very little inventory. Four to six months is balanced. Then seven-plus is a buyer's market. That means there are a lot of homes out there for sale. That's '08, '09, '10, '11 markets. I want you to give you guys a little bit of a context for that. It's just a quick ratio for you guys to know exactly what's going on in the market and for you to be able to see what's going on.

New Homes in the Market

So this is new active listings that came on the market in the month of February in 2017, 2018, 2019, 465 to 525 and then a little bump up this year in February to 435. It has stayed fairly stable actually the number of new homes now in February. So it will be interesting when we're leading in the spring. What's going to continue happening? The last couple of months if you've been watching, it's been an interesting little dip we had been seeing. And then it came back up against and these numbers for the first time in a year or two have been coming back up again and showing us a little bit of a more balanced market. Still a seller's market, but it's trending towards a balanced market a little bit more. It was trying to creep that way. But some of these numbers now this month are kind of reversing that trend a little bit.

Price per square foot

Remember you guys, this is countywide data. This gives you an average. It gives you a rule of thumb where you'd be. If you want a true analysis of your property, you need to have an actual professional come to do what you need to, have our team come to give you analysis or an appraiser, someone, that is going to be able to give you that actual appraisal of your home in your neighborhood. We had $74 two years ago, $81 last year and $92 this year. So again, big increases this year. We're seeing this countywide really in southeast Michigan, we're seeing that all over the place. Big increases in the price per square foot. So it is an unbelievable time for sellers to sell her home and get equity.

Sold

Then the last one is sold. We had 343 down to 253 and then back up all the way up to 354 actually. So this is the one real buyer category actually and this is showing us the buyer pool. How many buyers are actually out there? We've got a fair amount of buyers still out there. They did kind of dip in the last month or two just because of the time of season and interest rates going up, all kinds of different crazy things like the just trade wars and currency wars, the different asset bubbles going on all over the place.

So it made buyers a little hesitant. But we did see a little, a spike up here in this month and February compared to last two years, which is good. It's good news to see that. And hopefully, that means there are good things to come. I appreciate you guys watching and listening to this. Let me know what questions you have please let us know how else we can serve you guys. I really appreciate it. Appreciate your time, your attention and energy. If you go to our Legacy group Facebook page, on Instagram Legacy Group MI on Twitter or Linkedin. You can reach out on either place. If you're listening to the podcast right now, I appreciate you guys more than anything. I look forward to giving you more of this data as we go forward and that way you can make better decisions for you and your family. So appreciate you guys more than anything and we will see you very soon.