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Realtors expect a good year for the West Michigan vacation homes market in 2025, driven by the continued popularity of Lake Michigan frontage, low water levels and transformative developments underway in several tourist towns.
According to a Dec. 4 Redfin forecast, home sales across the U.S. are expected to tick up anywhere between 2% and 9% this year, largely because of pent-up demand. At the same time, Redfin predicts the median U.S. home price will rise 4% next year as inventory continues to lag demand.
A similar Realtor.com report forecasts home prices will inch up 3.7% next year, with an 11.7% year-over-year increase in inventory. Still, annual inventory is still 23% short of what it was in 2017-19, according to Realtor.com. In 2023, annual inventory was 40% short of 2017-19 levels.
Lauri Sisson, Realtor and co-owner of Michigan Homes and Cottages/Coldwell Banker Woodland Schmidt in Park Township, said 2024 saw “more and more people” finding out about the “reasonable” prices of Lake Michigan real estate and coming from the South, Midwest and West Coast to snap up homes, especially given lower lake levels. She expects that will continue next year.
Sisson also said the outcome of the presidential election may remove uncertainty for cash buyers, prompting some people who were awaiting the outcome to pull the trigger now that it’s over.
Redfin noted the market is shifting from a strong seller’s market to one in which buyers and sellers have more balanced power, as more supply emerges. Sisson said this may result in price reductions. Whereas sellers have been “testing the waters” at the highest price since the pandemic, they may not be able to command their initial ask now. She also expects some homes to stay on the market longer amid more supply.
Andrea Crossman, a Realtor and owner of Andrea Crossman Group/Coldwell Banker Woodland Schmidt in Holland, said she has an “overall very good” outlook for 2025, as upper price-tier buyers are coming off a “long run” of the stock market doing well.
She said a mix of factors are playing into the desirability of West Michigan’s luxury and vacation properties.
“On the lakeshore, there’s just so much good stuff for the getting … (that) we’re getting people from all across the country that understand what West Michigan has to offer,” she said. “And there’s also some good things on the horizon for the downtown Holland area (and other towns’) expansions,” she said, referring to planned waterfront redevelopments in Holland, Grand Haven and Port Sheldon Township. She noted as towns build out their cultural and entertainment offerings, their lakefront real estate becomes more desirable.
Crossman added 100 feet of Lake Michigan frontage still commands “quite a bit” higher prices than the same amount of inland lake access.
Sandi Gentry, Realtor and owner of the Sandi Gentry Team of Re/Max Lakeshore in Grand Haven, said she is feeling “totally positive” about the luxury lakeshore market heading into 2025.
“I’m feeling very good,” she said. “It’s just about having the right product. I do feel like the buyers are out there, but the right product is (important).”
Gentry echoed what others said about an upward trend in price cuts, especially for homes that haven’t been updated.
Crossman said she’s noticed a trend of high-end buyers looking for “instant gratification,” meaning they’ll pay a premium for turnkey homes.
“Most of them are not interested in fixing (houses) up, unless it’s such a special piece of property,” she said.
Echoing the sentiment from other Realtors, Gentry said that after the election was over, clients who had previously held off started to feel “more comfortable” with putting their home on the market, leading to a general feeling that inventory will pick up in 2025.
“On Nov. 6, my phone started ringing off the hook,” she said.
Still, brokers agreed they don’t expect to see a return to the sales volumes and home prices of peak years like 2021 and 2022. Those COVID-19 pandemic years saw a “trifecta” of low interest rates, decent inventory and people looking to “get out of metropolitan areas,” Sisson said.
Crossman said her team had a record year in 2021, closing about $154 million in sales, but she doesn’t expect to do anywhere near that volume in 2025.
“In the last two years, it’s leveled off with my team to about $100 million. That’s still a good, healthy number,” just not a “boom” year, she said.
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