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, July closed fewer homes than June and fewer than July of last year. Homes still sold faster than a year ago, supply is still tight, and prices held. Slower is not the same as falling, and the difference matters if you are deciding what to do this fall.
July closed 2,107 homes, down from 2,282 in June, at an average sold price near $390,000. A June to July dip is what summer usually does, so we pulled last July to check it. July 2025 closed 2,324 homes at about $384,000. That means we moved roughly nine percent fewer homes than the same month a year ago while the average price finished up less than two percent. The climb from January's 1,168 closings to June's 2,282 was the normal seasonal ramp, not a boom, and measuring this year against itself made it look stronger than it was. The other half matters just as much. Homes sold faster in July than a year ago, 22.8 days against 25.3, supply is still tight at about two months across the footprint with nine of our fifteen counties under three months, and new listings were up about four percent year over year, so sellers have not left. The 30-year fixed finished July at 6.66 percent after starting the month at 6.43, which is most of the explanation for the softening, and it sits close to flat against the 6.72 percent of a year ago. This is a market that has stopped growing, not one that is breaking, and those are very different things to plan around.
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 July's closed residential activity. 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 | 752 | 1,088 | $434,580 | 16 |
| Ottawa | 330 | 629 | $482,510 | 19 |
| Kalamazoo | 326 | 582 | $346,138 | 22 |
| Muskegon | 200 | 477 | $283,556 | 22 |
| Allegan | 122 | 253 | $445,363 | 34 |
| Montcalm | 62 | 144 | $314,210 | 28 |
| Ionia | 49 | 91 | $301,160 | 26 |
| Barry | 44 | 100 | $320,427 | 31 |
| Newaygo | 42 | 153 | $277,490 | 24 |
| Mason | 37 | 145 | $342,288 | 42 |
| Mecosta | 37 | 175 | $291,477 | 51 |
| Oceana | 35 | 168 | $317,729 | 35 |
| Osceola | 26 | 73 | $218,588 | 25 |
| Manistee | 25 | 136 | $300,768 | 64 |
| Lake | 20 | 115 | $241,715 | 69 |
Grand Rapids alone closed 353 homes in July at a 15-day pace, with Wyoming turning homes in about 17 days. A fast core and a more patient top end, with Ada averaging around $679,000. Come pre-approved and price to recent solds, and you transact.
Ottawa led the footprint on price at a $482,510 average. Holland closed 115 at a quick 19 days, Hudsonville turned homes in about seven, and Spring Lake averaged near $645,000. The lakeshore premium is firm, but speed varies block to block.
Muskegon is the affordability anchor of the region, with the city closing 127 homes near $251,000 in about 20 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.
June closed the most homes of the year, but new listings and pending sales both eased from May. That is the normal shape of a summer peak, but it is the first month we have seen it, so July's new inventory is the number we are watching most closely.
The Federal Reserve held rates in June, then a soft June jobs report reopened the conversation about cuts later this year. We are not predicting. We are watching how buyers respond, because behavior around rates moves this market more than the rate itself.
With roughly 4,329 homes available and demand still firm, the market is balanced enough to reward accurate pricing on both sides. If new listings keep easing while demand holds, that balance shifts, and we will say so plainly when it does.
July held foreclosure notices at 145 across our fifteen counties, 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.
Subscribe and we will send you the current brief and each new one. Tell us a city or a price range you are watching and the brief gets more useful to you. Unsubscribe any time.
Go Deeper
The data tells you what the market is doing. These tell you how to move through it.
From pre-approval to closing day, what to expect, what things cost, and where buyers most often stumble.
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Read the articles →What sold, what is being permitted, and the public record on 358 cities and townships across all fifteen counties, each with its own profile and map.
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