February 2019 Real Estate Market Update – Macomb County, Michigan

We have your Macomb County February 2019 Real Estate Market Update. Let's jump right into this.

I preface every single video, we've been doing this for years now. I preface every single video, I feel like a broken record, but, we always prefaced this video with why we're doing what we're doing, how we're doing it, and the number. We take the month previous, in arrears because the numbers are hot off the press, the whole month is wrapped up. All the numbers are in just like the jobs report and the government puts it out just like that. The first Friday after the month, we do it the first Thursday after the month. We have three years of data because we want you to see patterns. If we just gave you one month, it wouldn't make any sense. So that's why we have 2017, '18 and '19 years. You can see each month compared to each other. So let's jump right into it - Macomb County.

Days on Market

The first one, DOM. Many times you see DOM it means days on market. We had 54 days in 2017. We had 49 days in 2018 and 48 days in 2019. A little decrease each time. which again kind of plays into the seller market we've seen. That is to be expected.

Active Homes in the Market

We had 1,370 two years ago, 1,083 last year in 1,323 this year. So it went down last year and came back up to where we were in 2017. So we're seeing a fair amount of the statistics in the different counties in southeast Michigan jumped back up to their 2017 levels. Some of them are in the 2018 levels, but it's good to see these home jump back up. Active is just a one day snapshot, remember? So it's a one day snapshot when the data is taken, it's how many homes are active on that date in that county. So that's why they can be three years of data so you can see a pattern and it gives you that full market view of what's going on. If we just gave you one day, it really won't represent very much.

Month of Inventory

This is a very quick snapshot, a ratio to say "Boom, I know exactly what I'm getting and what kind of market I'm in with one data point," and its MOI. At the rate home are selling, how long would it take every last home to sell if no new homes came on the market? That's what MOI stands for. In Macomb, every year, 2017, 2018, 2019, all one month of inventory. Just very little inventory. Macomb has been like that every single month. I don't think it's changed honestly in the last year or a year and a half or so. Every month has been the same. One month, one month, one month, and there's just very little inventory and a lot of buyers out there. It's a very sought-after area obviously, and there's not a ton of inventory to go around. So buyers are really struggling, really fighting it out and sellers are making some bucks. To give you guys some context, one to three months is a seller's market. Four to six is a balanced market and then seven-plus is a buyer's market. So I always give you guys that context every time so that we can see exactly what's going on, what that number means. You can see here obviously, one - we were in a steep seller's market, meaning there's not a ton of homes on the market. Sellers are getting top dollar for their homes. It makes it hard to go then buy something. But if you're moving out of state, you're moving up north or you're going to rent for somebody that you can get a ton of equity for your home and not have to deal with that buyer chaos. So remember that.

New Homes in the Market

New homes that were actively listed in the month of February. We had 1,454 in 2017, we had 1284 in 2018 and 1,238 in 2019. A little decrease here in the number of homes that were listed in the month of February. A tiny bit concerning again that we keep decreasing the number of homes that were listed. We're even less last year, which was a down year, a very low inventory year and we're seeing the same thing right now. A little alarming, but something to keep our eyes on.

Price per square foot

We got two more here. Price per square foot has been increasing every single year. We are 82 years ago, 91 last year, at 93 this year. Again, when you've got low inventory, you've got demand, the staying the same or increasing, you're going to have prices going on. It's just Economics 101. That's the trajectory, what's going on there. But again, remember that's countywide data. If you take your square footage and multiply it by that number, $93 right now, that's about how much your home would be worth. But remember, as I said, that's a general rule of thumb. That's countywide if you actually want your data. I give you guys this trend, here again, the three years of data, so you can see the trend or the pattern going up that the price per square foot is going up. If you want a true valuation of your home, you have to speak with a real estate professional. You've got to speak with our team, you've got to speak with an appraiser. Somebody's going to get you your actual data, go to your property, walk your property, see what you've done, talk to you, walk your neighborhood, check the comps out, and give you an actual of what's going on with your home's value.

Sold

That is the real buyer statistic that we have. This is the number of homes that were sold. Obviously, it's very self-explanatory. However, this shows us again, the buyer pool, what's going on with the buyer pool. It usually doesn't change too much unless there is a big catastrophic event like a recession 10 years ago when you see something really wacky happen. This generation didn't change too much. Here you're not going to see it change all that much. There were 971 homes sold two years ago, 851 last year, a decent drop there and then back up a little bit, 899 last year. So that's good this past month. That's a good sign. There are a little bit more homes. We saw the jumps a month or two ago in every county actually. So it doesn't surprise me that in February we were seeing some more home sold and we were last year. So again guys, I appreciate more than anything you guys tuning in on the live stream and the podcast. If you guys are on the podcast, Legacy Group and the Facebook channel, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, if you're on the live stream here, comment. Please put in the comments that way we can answer it and everyone can see it. Everyone can learn and grow together. We appreciate your time more than anything. It's truly the most valuable asset we have. And I appreciate your spending with us and learning from us and all of us learning together. So appreciate you guys more than anything. That's the Macomb County market update for February 2019 and we will see you on the next one.