Last year, at the beginning of September, our office met for our weekly team meeting and several agents were reporting a slow down in showings after 3 solid years of offer deadlines and multiple offers.  

Then, seemlingly overnight, the market took a cliff dive.  By October 2022 the average time on market for a home nearly tripled, from 24 days to an average of 80 days on market.  80 DAYS!

Sellers were upset, buyers were scared, and Realtors were in the middle sharing about how the Feds attempts to impact inflation had a direct impact on housing and that when inflation was under control demand would return because supply was still well below the need for housing.  

In January, when interest rates and the shock of the fall market wore off Buyers re-entered the market.  From January til July we saw a return of strong offers and seller friendly terms.  

Below we’ll take a look a the numbers but all of this is to say we’ve had a solid first half of the year for sellers, we are still in need of more inventory for buyers, and as interest rates head up or down buyers will move with it.

Stats from GRAR.com – Greater Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area includes the following: Kent County, Georgetown and Jamestown Townships in southeastern Ottawa County, Ionia County, the 6 townships in northeastern Allegan County, and the northern half of Barry County (including all of Gun Lake).