Home sales for November show a relatively stable market in terms of the number of sales. There were 207 residential sales last month in the five-county region, roughly on a par with the 211 homes sold in November 2022. Both those figures are lower than previous Novembers dating back almost a decade, to November 2013 when there were 191 homes sold. Sales in Grand Traverse and Kalkaska Counties are down slightly, in Antrim and Leelanau they were up slightly, while Benzie sales were roughly the same.

Despite the rise in interest rates, continued demand is keeping the market’s inventory tight, and prices continue to escalate. The total sales volume for the region of $108,524,984 tops last year’s $92,341,266, though it ranks below both 2021 and 2020, with its record of $136,638,838. But the trend of increasing prices seen during the couple years continues, as the average price in the five counties is $524,275, a new high-water mark, outstripping last year’s November average of $437,636 and the previous record of $447,557 in November 2021.

Sales of high-end homes continue to push those prices, with 35 sales of homes at $750,000 last month, compared with 20 last November and 30 in 2021. Past years’ totals are even fewer, to a recent low of only nine sold in 2018. Every county save Leelanau saw higher average prices than November 2022, as its average price of $738,077 was topped only by the $796,494 of November 2022. Only Antrim boasted a previous average sale besting this year’s $580,291, with its high of $856,937 set in November 2021.