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Market Intelligence
Real signals about the Muskegon County and West Michigan market. What the data actually shows and what it means for your decision.
West Michigan by the County
Active inventory, new listings, pending and sold counts, days on market, and average sold price across every county I serve. Pulled weekly from the MLS, no spin.
| County | Active | New | Pending | Sold | Avg DOM | Avg Sold Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | 910 | 214 | 192 | 115 | 24 | $480,566 |
| Ottawa | 569 | 105 | 70 | 61 | 25 | $510,263 |
| Kalamazoo | 526 | 98 | 89 | 58 | 24 | $350,035 |
| Muskegon | 417 | 65 | 53 | 34 | 42 | $258,772 |
| Allegan | 233 | 37 | 36 | 17 | 19 | $461,885 |
| Barry | 84 | 22 | 14 | 10 | 27 | $340,130 |
| Montcalm | 122 | 24 | 15 | 8 | 25 | $573,788 |
| Oceana | 157 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 30 | $371,000 |
| Mason | 134 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 37 | $333,571 |
| Newaygo | 132 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 75 | $338,500 |
| Manistee | 124 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 21 | $363,480 |
| Mecosta | 138 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 26 | $342,380 |
| Lake | 106 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 35 | $132,478 |
| Ionia | 80 | 15 | 16 | 1 | 12 | $325,000 |
| Osceola | 63 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 194 | $374,900 |
Market Intelligence
The West Michigan market isn't behaving like one thing. Different price points and property types across the seven counties I cover are all moving differently. Here's an honest read on what I'm seeing.
Interest rates being too high is the number one thing I hear from buyers right now, and it's slowing some of them down more than it should. There are still homes moving fast around Muskegon, Norton Shores, and the lakeshore towns, and there are homes sitting and cutting price inland. Sellers who price honestly and prep the basics still do well. My advice to buyers is the same every time: don't get locked into one style or one neighborhood before you've seen what's actually out there.
What I Watch Closely
You've got more room to think and negotiate than you did a couple years back. Higher rates make the payment math the real conversation, so let's run the numbers before you fall for a property. The best-priced homes are still moving fast, so a clear plan beats trying to time the market.
Buyer guidance →Homes still sell here every week when they're priced right and show well. It's not automatic anymore, though. Prep and honest pricing are everything, and you need a plan built around where the market actually is, not where it was a few years back.
Seller guidance →Free Guides
Plain-language guides that walk you through your move page by page, written with no agenda except helping you make a better decision. All free.
A page-by-page roadmap from our first conversation to closing day. Financing, search strategy, offers, and inspections, explained clearly.
Read the buyer's guide →The process from our first conversation to closing: pricing, prep, marketing, and negotiation. No surprises.
Read the seller's guide →What to expect, what it actually costs, how to compete, and how to avoid the mistakes that trip up most first-time buyers.
Read the first-time buyer guide →How to evaluate rentals and fix-and-flip deals the right way: cash flow, financing, and what the numbers need to look like before you make an offer.
Read the investor's guide →What you need to know about moving to Muskegon County and West Michigan: communities, schools, and how to navigate a purchase from out of area.
Read the relocation guide →Support for homeowners facing a hard situation: foreclosure, divorce, financial hardship, or an estate. Your options, your rights, your timeline, explained plainly.
Read the Home Protectors guide →First-Time Buyers
Buying your first home starts with knowing where you stand. Work through it on your own, talk it out with someone one on one, or join a free live class. No pressure, no cost.
A self-paced workbook that walks you through the questions, budgeting, and planning, page by page, so you know exactly where you stand.
Open the workbook →A quick call with a Legacy advisor. No pitch, just a straight look at where you stand and what's next.
Book a readiness call →A free, live class with Legacy and VanDyk Mortgage. Let's look at the real numbers, the loan programs, and the path to your first home.
Register for the class →Market & Timing Questions
Depends on your specific situation: your timeline, your finances, what you're trying to accomplish. Market timing is real, but it's rarely the most important variable. The better question is whether you're ready. That's what we figure out together in the first conversation.
Genuinely mixed, and that's the honest answer. Certain price points and school districts still favor sellers, with homes moving fast when they show well and are priced right. Other ranges sit closer to neutral, where buyers have real room to think and negotiate. No single label fits the whole region, which is exactly why local context matters more than a national headline.
Timing the rate is a hard game to win, because nobody knows where rates are headed and life rarely waits for the perfect chart. What matters more is whether the payment works for your budget and whether you're ready. If the numbers make sense now, waiting on a rate you can't predict can cost you more than it saves. Let's run the actual math first, then decide.
Days on market, how often homes come back after going under contract, how often sellers are cutting price, and the balance between active inventory and real demand. No single number tells you much on its own. The signal is in how they move together, and how they read differently across price points and locations.
Because real estate doesn't work as a country, it works block by block. National headlines average together markets that have nothing to do with each other, so they almost never describe what's happening on your street. West Michigan is its own set of micro-markets, and even within it, one county can behave very differently from the next.
The read on the market here gets refreshed as conditions change, not on a rigid calendar, because the point is reflecting what's actually happening rather than filling a schedule. If you want a current take on your specific situation or neighborhood, the fastest path is to start a conversation and ask directly.
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“I'll walk you through it page by page. Let's look at the numbers, and let's do this together.”