The frenzy of the Southwest Michigan local housing market has slowed for ten consecutive months in 2022. The Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors says potential homebuyers have faced significant increases in selling prices for the limited availability of homes for sale, and even if successful in contracting a home, they’ll find mortgage rates nearly double what they were in the first half of 2022. For those reasons, the market has slowed in recent months. In October, the number of houses sold in southwest Michigan fell by 20% percent from the same month a year earlier, while year-to-date sales were down 14%. The association says the average selling price for the month, meanwhile, was up 15% from October of 2021 and the overall yearly average selling price is up 6% from 2021. In October, nine houses that were bank-owned or foreclosed were among the transactions. That’s 3% of all transactions. For six months, the percentage was at 1%, while in January, the rate was 0%.
