The pandemic-induced run-on home purchases is fading, but across all price ranges, the best move-in-ready properties are still selling quickly and over-asking. At the same time, average and below-average listings are sitting longer and requiring price reductions before selling. Across the country and throughout Southeast Michigan, home prices peaked in June and have been fading since—but they did that last year too. While the market is normalizing and moving toward balance, there’s still a large pool of buyers who continue to search for their “something special”—many have been searching for over a year. Homes that are fully updated and turnkey-ready continue to sell quickly for over-asking prices because they are easy. First, all those updates are wrapped into the
purchase mortgage as opposed to financing them with an equity loan. Second, have you tried to hire a contractor to do a kitchen or bath remodel lately? They are swamped. So, while the market is and will continue to slow while average price settles through the balance of the year, much of that is seasonal. There are proportionally fewer “prime” listings remaining in inventory this time of the year. Over the long run, expect the extreme demand that we’ve seen since the pandemic to settle. That combined with higher interest rates will restrict both sales and prices. But supply levels are still remarkably low and demand for quality listings remains strong. This month, 45% of the new pendings were on the market for 10 days or less and 29% of our closings were at or over full asking price.
