March 2020 Real Estate Market Update – Macomb County, Michigan

We have your Macomb County March 2020 Real Estate Market Update. Hopefully, you guys are doing well. You're safe, you're healthy, your families are. I know it's just an insanely crazy time right now with what's going on. I wish you all well. Hopefully, you're doing well. As I said, we're going to be doing this through thick and thin. We'll be giving you updates and this is the most important investment most people have in their life. We won't get into the asset-liability talk right now, but this is the most important investment most people have. So we want to give you this information through hell or high water. That way you know what you need to do in making decisions for you and your family.

We always give a couple of things here. We always use the month in arrears because we have all the data now. It's finalized, it's here finally with us and we can now give you that data. We have three years of data that way you can see the trend. The trend is your friend in investing, right? So you want to build to see the pattern. If you had just one year of data, it wouldn't make any sense. Right? So let's dive right into it.

Days on market

We had 45 days two years ago, 50 last year and 51 this year, climbing a little bit. But remember this is not so much of a lagging indicator but this again, we're seeing these climb in the different counties just because of what happened at the end of March.

Active Days on market

This is a one-day sample size. On the day the data was taken, how many homes were actually active? We had 1,008 two years ago, 1,294 last year, and then 1,239 this year. So a little drop from last year. But again that might've been because we have a huge drop-off in new homes actually coming on the market. So that could be probably is a big reason why.

Month of inventory

One across the board. One, one, one. What that is is that at the rate homes are selling, how long would it take to sell every last home with no new homes sitting in the market? So basically it's your supply of homes in essence. One to three months, for context, is a seller's market. Four to six months is a balanced market and then seven-plus months is a buyer's market. A buyers market is the opposite of what we have now. It means there's oversupply, which means there are more homes than there are buyers. In Macomb, it's been a seller's market for a long time and it still has been and is even now as we speak. Something to keep an eye on though cause I have a feeling that may change going forward.

New homes in the market

This is the number of new homes that actively came onto the market in March. This is a month-wide number, 1,711, two years ago, 1,788 last year, fairly similar in '18 and '19. But we had 1,354 this March. That does not bode well going forward because that is even less inventory than we've had, which is insane to even think about. But I have a feeling there's going to be as many buyers out there going forward. We've already had numbers saying that there was a 25%to 33% decrease in mortgage applications already. So hopefully that evens out some way or another, but this is crazy stuff we're looking at going forward.

Price per square foot

It's $94 a square foot two years ago, $97 last year, and $105 this year. So that's a little bit of a lagging indicator though too. We're seeing that stuff that was closing in March. It went under contract in January and February. It still is and was closing at higher levels. So equity was going up again, the feeling that's going to start to change though here going forward. This really sticks out. I mean that's huge. That's when we're seeing that across the board in every county in Metro Detroit.

Sold

This is the number of people actually signing on a property and closing on a property. One thousand one hundred thirteen two years ago, 1,179 last year and then 1,032 this year. So again, a little bit of a drop. This is a lagging indicator because this is January and February contract at homes and now is closing in March. So again, look for this to change going forward. We're in unprecedented times. As I said, I hope you and your family are well, but I want to give you this data that way you can make the best decisions for you and your family financially going forward.

I appreciate your time, your attention, your energy. It's the most important asset we have. If you're on the podcast, go @legacygroupmi, on our Facebook or YouTube channel, that way you can go question or comment your concern, share, tag, whatever there and we'll answer those questions. As I said, we have the other market updates for the other counties in Metro Detroit on the page as well, on the podcast and on the Facebook and YouTube channel. So go check those out. Let us know if there's something we can do to help you improve something for you, whatever it may be. But this, we're looking at some crazy stuff here, and this number really sticks out. It's why it's in a different color here, actually. Just because it was like one of those numbers, I was like, well, I've got to remember to talk about that for some reason. I forget. But we're looking at some interesting times. We appreciate you guys. We'll see you on another one. Take care.