The cities of Detroit and Dearborn saw big gains in home sales activity last year, according to a new report.

The two Wayne County communities stand out, with both far outpacing the broader region in terms of growing median prices and decreasing inventory of homes for sale, according to a yearly report by Realcomp II, a Farmington Hills-based multiple listing service. However, the two cities that share borders are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to closed sales and time on market.

Last year in general made for a year of constant change in the Southeast Michigan housing market as fluctuating interest rates both spurred and tempered buyer interest, even as available inventory of homes on the market steadily increased, per the Realcomp report.

Both housing markets make for “very resilient” parts of the region, according to Adam Oberski, president, broker and owner of the Century 21-affiliated Curran & Oberski brokerage based in Northville.

As both markets have shown signs of popularity, houses in Detroit and Dearborn have become harder to come by, per the Realcomp data. In Detroit, inventory fell 13.4% last year from 2023, and in Dearborn there were 22% fewer homes on the market than the previous year.

Only farther flung, largely rural areas, such as Huron, Jackson and Lapeer counties, saw increased inventory last year.

In Detroit, closed sales last year increased 6% year-over-year, while Dearborn declined 8.8%, per Realcomp. Macomb and Oakland counties each saw median price increases of just more than 6%, each just below the broader region, according to the report.

The Realcomp MLS is one of the primary vehicles for data for Realtors in the market and as a portal to view homes on the market. It covers a wide swath of Southeast Michigan geography, including the three core counties, as well as outlying areas including Genesee, Livingston, St. Clair and Washtenaw counties.

All told, median prices in the broader Southeast Michigan market grew 6.6% last year from 2023 to $265,000. Detroit and Dearborn, however, increased 9.4% and 11.6%, respectively. The median home price in Detroit last year was $87,500 and in Dearborn was $240,000, according to the Realcomp MLS.

Metro Detroit’s median home price still makes the region remarkably affordable relative to the rest of the country, which ended 2024 at nearly $384,000, up 6.4% from a year earlier, according to national brokerage firm Redfin.

While real estate remains a “hyper-local” sector with prices and products differing from one municipality, neighborhood or street to the next, there are some general trends that continue to be true across metro Detroit, Oberski said.

Particularly, when properties are marketed properly and priced appropriately, “we are absolutely still seeing multiple offers … (which is) really driving up average sale prices and making it incredibly challenging for first-time homebuyers,” he said.

Oberski said he remains optimistic about the general state of the housing market in the region, even as affordability remains stretched for many buyers given still elevated interest rates and limited, albeit improving inventory.

On the interest rate front, the Mortgage Bankers Association trade group and other experts forecast rates to settle just above 6% this year. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped 7%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday — a leap from 6.93 last week. So what will be enough to break the so-called “golden handcuffs” that have kept many homeowners in place as moving would drastically increase their monthly payments?

“Not quite yet,” Oberski guessed, noting that most areas around Southeast Michigan continue to have only about two months of inventory.

“We need two to three times more homes on the market,” he said. “We need to go on a period of homes being listed above and beyond the rate of sales for inventory to grow. That could take six to 18 months to happen.”