On the Move - City2Shore Gateway Group May 2023 by Geoff Brown, June 2023

On The Move With Gateway Group Real Estate

     The real estate market in West Michigan is still very strong with new opportunities for home buyers and sellers. Whether you are looking to buy or sell a home, understanding the current market conditions in Allendale, Blendon, Georgetown, Robinson and Polkton/ Coopersville can help you make the best decisions for your needs.
Let’s focus on Allendale Township in the last 30 days:
Currently:  88 Homes for sale on the open market   3.6%
New to Market:  28 homes:   22%
Average Days on Market: 88 Days  16.1%
Average Home Price:  $422,696   0.1%
Number of list price reductions:  6 This is 50%
Average sell price: $381,042  4.7%
Most expensive listing in Allendale:  $1,089,000
 
Let’s summarize these statistics.  Since the number of homes for sale is declining, but the number of buyers has been rising, we still have a strong sellers’ market with approximately 8 buyers for every home on the market (in the given area).  The average days on the market has increased significantly as sellers have been over pricing their homes lately with the assumption that the demand will create sales. That is only partially true. The fact is, as home prices rise, many buyers are not able to borrow the funds to pay the sellers what they want, and therefore you see a 50% increase in the number of homes that required a price drop in order to sell. That also coincides with the drop in average sale price.   Professionally (Realtor) marketed and sold homes still are seeing a nearly 12% higher sale price when using a realtor than selling off market or “by owner”.  Most people could sell their home buy owner given the “sellers” market but doing so costs them 12% higher sale price as well as repeated failed sales due to sellers’ inability to properly qualify a buyer and a steep increase in legal fees and lawsuits because of improper contracts and disclosures.  The risks involved are not worth the 6-7% you are trying to save.
Geoff Brown is the Broker/Owner of the Gateway Real Estate Group in Allendale Michigan.  An independently owned and operated City2Shore Real Estate franchise.