Sales of single family homes in August set a new record for the five-county area with a total of 423 sales. Each of the counties save Benzie saw growth in the number of homes sold. While that county’s total dropped from 49 to 45 units, its dollar volume last month still topped that of August 2019, $17,521,400 to $14,089,500. All told, sales totaled $162,661,657 compared with $129,790,866 a year ago.

While the last two months have been record-setters, the economic shutdown this spring meant that there was a lot of ground to be made up. The total for the year thus far of 1,916 residential sales still lags behind 2019’s total of 2,129, as does the dollar volume of $629,848,693 for 2020 year to date, compared with $637,857,702 for 2019. Average prices, however, have steadily increased: $384,842 last month versus $327,754 a year ago. Year to date, the average is $328,731 for 2020; it was $299,604 for 2019. One perhaps surprising area not demonstrating strength is the number of days a property is on the market. Overall, the average for August was 107, compared with 102 in August 2019. Only Antrim County saw the number decrease from a year ago, at 114 days versus 132 days.