CHARLOTTE, Mich. — Trying to find the perfect home can be challenging in the best of times, but with the number of houses on the market way down and the competition way up, some Lansing-area buyers say it's extra tough.
Shayne Hasty is a first time home buyer and is looking in Charlotte. Her lease is up in May, and she's been searching for a home since October.
"The most challenging part is just finding something on the market that you have time to put an offer in, make sure it's the right one," Hasty said. "You don't really have time to shop around. If you want it, you have to put an offer in within the 12-hour window of it being listed."
Shane Loney is a real estate agent at RE/MAX in Charlotte and said inventory in the area is low and demand is high. Currently, there are only 13 homes on the market in Charlotte.
"Interest rates are low right now. So, a lot of people are looking to buy. The thing is, too, Charlotte's rising, growing, so a lot of people are looking to move to Charlotte, but there's just not a lot of houses on the market right now," Loney said.
At the start of 2021, Joe Vitale an associate broker at Century 21 Looking Glass in East Lansing, says they were dealing with incredibly low inventory levels in mid-Michigan.
"Typically, we have anywhere from 1200 to 1800 homes on the market available at any given time," Vitale said. "I was running weekly analyses, and the lowest inventory I saw was 286 homes, and the highest was like 480 or 500."
Vitale said there were 621 homes for sale in the Greater Lansing area as of Thursday morning. That's about half as much as they would typically have this time of year.
The reason why there are more buyers in the market could have something to do with historically low-interest rates.
"They've creeped up a little bit. Two months ago, they were below 3 percent. Now they're coming in at about 3.25. So, money is very, very affordable," said Vitale. "And rents have been increasing consistently in the area. So many people are in a position that they can own a home for substantially less monthly outlay than they would renting."
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