Southwest Michigan’s housing market took a step back in January. The Southwest Michigan Association of Realtors tells WSJM News it isn’t unusual for January to be the least productive month of any given year, and it’s shaping up to be that way here in 2018. Home sales in the region were down 30% from December. Looking year-to-year, the association says southwest Michigan homes sales in January were down 6% from January of 2017. The organization says the shrinking inventory faced by the region could have contributed to the decline, as it notes the number of available houses in January was at its lowest point in 13 years. The average selling price decreased just slightly less than 2%. The slowdown in January comes after two peak years for the real estate market in Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties.
