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Answering all those burning questions you didn’t know you had about home ownership.

Market Update: August 2022

Picture of Jessica Dabkowski

Jessica Dabkowski

Helping you with all things homeownership!

I’ve missed you, my friends! I am happy to be back to writing articles to share with you.

After my time away, I thought it was important to share a quick snapshot on the state of the metro-Detroit real estate market as it compares nationally. Obviously, my comments are based on my own impressions developed while working in the local markets and looking at the market statistics.

During the month of August, I had a lot of people ask me “So, Jess, how’s the market?” As always, it depends on which part of the market you are interested in.

The Media Needs a Hook

On last week’s episode of my favorite real estate podcast, Hustle Humbly, one of the hosts pointed out that it doesn’t sound sexy or glamorous for a news outlet to shout “THE MARKET IS BALANCED!”. She makes a valid point; the media wants something eye catching to grab your attention.

On that note, the market isn’t crashing and it’s not quite as crazy. It is moving toward finding that balance familiar to people who purchased their home in “the time before.”

Lies, Lies and . . . Statistics

I am going to run through some statistics, starting off nationwide and then drilling down into our local markets. SPOILER ALERT! The drill down into our local markets is where this article gets interesting.

Often times, market trends start in the coastal big cities and start to work their way inward before hitting us here in the Midwest. That might be what is happening here . . . or maybe we are just living the good life in a fabulous location!

For this article, I pulled MLS statistics for Oakland County, Wayne County and the I-275 corridor (Novi over to Livonia down to Westland over to Canton and back up to Novi). All national data comes straight from this article from Realtor.com.

Okay, let’s review some key metrics from August 2022 and discuss, shall we?

Inventory is Up . . . Kinda

Nationally, that is. The inventory of active listings is up by 26.6% over August 2021, across the nation. This additional inventory is bringing relief to some of the markets that have been unbelievably tight.

I see you, Los Angeles.

This news is good for buyers . . . who are . . . not here.

Locally, we’ve got an entirely different story unfolding. The local markets were down, with the exception of Wayne County. Oakland County was down 11.4% and the I-275 corridor was down 10.3% from August 2022. There were actually less listings in August than there were a year ago.

Of the three local markets we’re reviewing, only Wayne County saw an increase in listings.

It looks like buyers in our local market are still looking for that flood of inventory the media told us was coming.

Days on Market Increases

The days on market ticked up nationally by 5 days on market, pushing the median days on market for a listing up to 42 days nationwide. This statistic is significant because it is the first time we’ve seen an increase since June 2020.

However, in our local markets, the average days on market was much, much less. For Wayne County, the median was 10 days; Oakland County was 10. If you drill down even further, the I-275 corridor was 8 days.

Median days on market remains brief in our local markets.

For our local markets, the days on market stat is slightly lower than it was for August 2021. Locally, homes are being snapped up much more quickly than national data would suggest. The national data factors in those homes in more rural areas where homes just flat out take longer to sell. When I dig into our local markets, we don’t have so many of those listings that sit for a hot minute before someone scoops them up.

Prices Increase, Just Not As Much

The median (as The Mathematician reminded us, that’s the one in the middle!) listing price nationally was $435,000. This figure is down $15,000 from a peak in June 2022. However, the August 2022 median list price is still up 14.3% over August 2021.

In our local markets, the median sale point is less steep. The I-275 corridor had the highest median price at $330,000, with Oakland County right there with it at $325,000. Wayne County, influenced by lower prices from the City of Detroit, came in at $181,000.

Over August 2021, these median sales prices represent between a 3.1-5.5% increase, nowhere near the 14.3% prices seen in the nationwide data.

That being said, prices have come down from their June/July 2022 high points. The I-275 corridor saw a 7% drop in median sale price from July to August 2022.

See the chart below for the median sales prices from the last year. You can see the natural rhythm of the market shining through here. The market heats up in the spring and runs red hot up into June/July before naturally dropping back down as there is less inventory combined with less active buyers.

The pink boxes point out the recent high points for the local median sales price.

Price Reductions Are Back

Listings with price reductions were up to 19.4%, almost 1 in 5 homes nationally. This stat is up from 11.0% last August, and is much more on par with what we saw in 2017 and 2018.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a great data source for price reductions in our local market. I didn’t love the way my data source captured it. Anecdotally, I can share that I have received more “price adjustment” alerts in the last 6 weeks than I did in the entire year prior. Something to think about there – even though our market is not quite on par with what is happening nationwide, we are seeing sellers acclimate to the current market.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room . . .

Rates Are Up

You already knew this fun fact, because it is being shouted all over the place. Yes, rates are up. Has it pushed some former buyers out of the market? Yes. But our local data PROVES that there are still many serious buyers on the hunt for a home. There’s never a perfect time to buy or sell your home; there’s only regret that you waited so long.

Great movie alert!!

For my dear readers who are loving their home with no plans to move, hopefully you still find this article interesting and you’re grateful you don’t have to spare any additional mental space for the housing market. 😊

Thanks for reading this week! As always, I’m here to help. Reach out with any questions, concerns or contractor referral requests!

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