Michigan summers are short and when they come, who doesn’t enjoy getting out on the water?
Our lakes were formed as the result of the de-glaciation of the region during the ice age. Local fresh water provides a valuable natural resource that’s unique to Michigan. You’re never more than 6 miles from an inland lake or 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes.
Waterfront Inventory across Southeast Michigan makes up about 7.5% of all active single-family homes. July 1st active waterfront inventory reached 919 listings—up 9% from last month and up 20% from last year. Inventory is up in all price ranges except for the over-$1 million range, which is down 11%.
Waterfront properties are costly. Just 2% of the total homes sold in our local markets have a shoreline and they sell for nearly twice the price of non-waterfront properties.
In our 5-county Southeast Michigan region, the largest concentration of waterfront properties is in Oakland County. Forty-two percent of all Southeast Michigan waterfront sales occur there. With over 358 lakes, Oakland County has a tremendous amount of shoreline and plenty of waterfront homes. Its lakes add more than $1 billion in value to its residential properties. Through the first half of this year, Oakland County waterfront sales tallied $137 million.
Despite its big numbers, Oakland County’s waterfront sales got off to a slow start in the first half of 2019. Closed sales, average price, and closed volume are all down compared to the first half of last year. Sales dropped from 360 last year to 282 in the first half of 2019. The number of over-$1m sales dropped from 37 properties last year to just 22 this year. The YTD average sale price of $486 is down 8% from last year’s $530k average.
Cold spring weather contributed to the declining YTD numbers, but that doesn’t explain why June sales fell from 104 units last year to 59 this year or the decline in average sale price. The gray bars (representing monthly sold units) in the chart below paint a clear picture that Oakland’s waterfront market has been lagging behind in both sales and price. Sold units for June of 2018 and 2019 are shown in black to illustrate the drop in sales.
Oakland County Waterfront Sales
Waterfront Definition: Residential single family home with frontage feet of a canal, river, lake, or pond.
