Market Intelligence
Fifteen counties, every week and every month, closing by closing. No national headlines, no hype, just what the data actually says about your market.
Across our fifteen-county footprint, August posted the highest average sold price of the year while homes took about three days longer to sell and buyers had more to choose from than in any month of 2026. That is a market finding its balance after a fast summer, not a market in trouble. We also owe you a correction on July, and it is below.
The average sold price landed at $392,860 in August, the highest monthly average we have recorded in 2026, and homes took 26.4 days to sell against 23.3 in July, the first month all year that number moved the wrong way. Active listings rose to 4,610, the fifth straight monthly increase, and supply sits at about 2.1 months across the footprint, with eight of our fifteen counties under three months. Our September 1 count shows 1,853 homes closed. Treat that as a floor rather than a total. Closings are recorded days or weeks after they happen, and a count taken one day after month end captures somewhere between 84 and 92 percent of what a month finally records, so we publish the verified count and the year-over-year comparison on September 7 rather than set a one-day count beside a finished year. August 2025 finished at 2,132 once fully recorded, and that is the number we will be measured against. The honest early signal is contracts, which that lag does not touch: 1,814 homes went under contract in August against 2,147 in July, down about 15 percent, and new listings fell about 13 percent to 2,627. Contracts written in August become closings in September and October, so we expect a quieter fall on volume even as prices hold. The 30-year fixed finished August at 6.66 percent, essentially flat on the month and about a tenth of a point above a year ago even though the Fed has cut a full point over that same year, because mortgages follow the 10-year Treasury rather than the Fed's overnight rate. Waiting on rates has not paid off for twelve months running. One more thing, because it matters. Our early-August read reported July at 2,107 closings and called it a year-over-year decline. That was a measurement error on our side, a count taken three days after the month ended and set beside months that had fully filled in. Re-measured on a consistent basis, July closed 2,278 homes, slightly ahead of July 2025, at a $390,003 average and 23.3 days. July did not move backwards, and we have corrected the figures throughout this site.
How We Read the Market
West Michigan is not one market. It is five or six distinct ones, from an affordability floor to a lakeshore premium. A single service-area average is almost always the wrong number to quote. Here is what we actually track, and why.
Days on market, and how often homes come back after going under contract, tell us whether demand is real or wishful. Speed varies block to block: some submarkets turn in about nine days while others run past sixty.
We anchor pricing to recent solds for the specific home, never to active-list optimism or a county headline. A handful of luxury sales can lift a whole county average without changing the market underneath it.
Active listings measured against what is actually going under contract is the balance that shifts everything. Right now the footprint is well-supplied, which is what keeps an accurately priced home moving.
Not just the rate, but how buyers respond to it. We frame rates as year-over-year payment math, because that is honest and useful, and we never predict where they go next.
When an average moves, we check whether values changed or the mix of what sold changed. A month of more mid-priced closings can pull an average down while demand is actually rising. That is a mix story, not a cooling one.
We track foreclosure activity across all fifteen counties. The honest answer is almost always that yes, some exists, and no, it is not a wave. Most statewide distress sits in metro Detroit, not our footprint.
This is the real spread of the market we serve, from Lake County's affordability floor to Ottawa's lakeshore premium. Sold, price and days on market are August's closed residential activity as counted September 1, with sold counts still firming up for about a week. Active is the current listing count, so you can see what closed against what is still on the market. Ask us for the read on your specific city.
| County | Homes Sold | Active Now | Avg Sold Price | Avg Days on Market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | 610 | 1,165 | $434,553 | 22 |
| Ottawa | 302 | 650 | $472,029 | 27 |
| Kalamazoo | 271 | 621 | $338,458 | 25 |
| Muskegon | 184 | 516 | $323,692 | 28 |
| Allegan | 118 | 275 | $436,221 | 24 |
| Montcalm | 54 | 153 | $300,235 | 20 |
| Barry | 49 | 113 | $313,921 | 28 |
| Oceana | 45 | 160 | $369,846 | 42 |
| Newaygo | 40 | 185 | $331,482 | 30 |
| Ionia | 39 | 92 | $314,250 | 19 |
| Mason | 38 | 144 | $342,634 | 53 |
| Mecosta | 38 | 191 | $306,177 | 45 |
| Manistee | 30 | 136 | $383,250 | 24 |
| Lake | 18 | 131 | $214,217 | 64 |
| Osceola | 17 | 78 | $224,906 | 47 |
Grand Rapids alone closed 286 homes in August at a 21-day pace, with Wyoming turning homes in about 16 days. A fast core and a more patient top end, with Ada moving twenty homes near $937,000 in about 14 days. Come pre-approved and price to recent solds, and you transact.
Ottawa led the footprint on price at a $472,029 average. Holland closed 90 at 29 days, Jenison turned homes in about 14 with under a month of supply, and Spring Lake averaged near $527,000. Grand Haven is the lakeshore market to watch, at 46 days and about 3.7 months of supply.
Muskegon is the affordability anchor of the region, with the city closing 105 homes near $278,000 in about 26 days. The market here is functional across the price band. A fresh-comp conversation and a realistic timeline are the right starting points.
The table above is this month. For the longer view, we publish every closed sale in the fifteen counties for the last three full years, by county and by property type, at home sales by county, 2023 to 2025.
What We Are Watching
Reading the market is not just describing today. It is watching the handful of things that tell us where it goes next. Here is where our attention is right now.
Contracts are the number that recording lag does not distort, and August wrote 1,814 of them against 2,147 in July, down about 15 percent, with new listings off about 13 percent. Those become September and October closings, so we expect a quieter fall on volume. Prices held through it, and that is the part to watch.
The Fed has cut a full percentage point over the past year and the 30-year fixed still sits a tenth above last August, because mortgages follow the 10-year Treasury and the spread over it. The Fed meets September 15 and 16 with the outcome genuinely open. We are not predicting. We show payment math and watch how buyers respond.
With roughly 4,610 homes available after five straight monthly increases and demand easing off its summer pace, the market is balanced enough to reward accurate pricing on both sides. Supply is still about two months across the footprint, and if new listings keep falling while contracts slow, that balance holds. We will say so plainly when it moves.
August brought foreclosure notices down to 102 across our fifteen counties, the lowest month in the thirteen months we have tracked, and the national distress narrative describes metro Detroit, not here. We watch it every month so that if the picture ever changes, you hear it from us first, in context.
The Legacy Market Brief
Everything on this page comes from the same engine that produces our weekly and monthly market briefs. Every week we read the fifteen-county footprint closing by closing, and every month we step back for the bigger picture. It reads in five minutes, it leads with numbers instead of adjectives, and there is no sales pitch at the end of it.
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Go Deeper
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From pre-approval to closing day, what to expect, what things cost, and where buyers most often stumble.
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