January 2024 Upper Michigan Newsletter

Welcome to 2024! I have moved my newsletter to a new application. I hope you find it easier to read on this application.

The Holiday’s were very enjoyable and I took a lot of time off. However I would say it feels really good to be back at work.

A few burning questions that have been on my mind are: What percentage of buyers are from out of the area, and is the out-of-area buyer percentage increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable? I have carefully reviewed all the sales I have been involved in since 2018. This month’s newsletter has easily taken over 20 hours to put together.

The following maps represent where the buyers came from properties that I listed and sold and buyers whom I had the opportunity to represent.

This study consists of 195 different buyers over 5 calendar years.

For the following maps about 50% of the local buyers are within 10 miles of Calumet or Houghton. If there was more than one buyer per town there is only one pin on each map.

2018 Buyers. Notice only 5 buyers outside of the Great Lakes region.

In 2019 I took a break from the real estate business for 9 months and only was involved with a handful of sales. Thus no 2019 buyer map.

Here is where all the 2020 buyers came from in the sales I was involved with. I look at 2020 as about ½ of the year as a typical buyer pool going back 5 years and about ½ of the year as the “great reshuffle”. The great reshuffle consisted of a lot of people moving around because of remote work and other reasons. Notice about 7 buyers outside of the Great Lakes region.

Here is where all the 2021 buyers came from in the sales I was involved with. Notice how the the buyers are coming from an even greater area. Notice 10 buyers outside of the Great Lakes region.

2022 buyers. Look an even further spread. 12 buyers outside of the Great Lakes region.

2023 buyers. I was involved with two transactions were the buyers lived overseas for work purposes. One in Qutar & one in Germany. Both were U.S. citizens. Ironically they will both have purchased properties within 400 feet of each other in a higher end neighborhood. About 18 buyers outside of the Great Lakes region. Notice a “tightening” up of where the buyers came from geographically.

Breakdown of Local VS Non Local Buyers

The following maps show where buyers came from in Michigan each year.

2018

2020

2021

2022

2023

Thoughts that come to mind after reviewing this data.

My hunch is that the best recruiting strategy for employers up here would be to focus on recruiting people that live within 15 miles of the Portage Lift Bridge or else in the Lower 1/3 of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

With a strong portion of our buyer pool coming from Detroit it makes me wonder how big of an impact the Detroit auto industry has on our area.

If a local service provider is doing any marketing it seems that money would be best spent in the Houghton to Calumet area or else in the Lower Peninsula.

If you are a service provider having good branding is going to matter more and more especially for higher ticket offering. Word of mouth and referrals are important however for someone who is out of the area it seems a good web presence would be helpful for validation.

My guess was that 2/3 of buyers were from out of the area. I was wrong on my assumption. We are closer to ½ of buyers being out of the area.

I was really surprised how many buyers came from Michigan. I thought in the more recent years that the percentage of non Michigan buyers would be higher.

I do not anticipate a leveling off or decline of our prices. Not unless out of area buyer demand drops. Most of area buyers in my experience are not as price sensitive as the locals. Many of them earn more, have more wealth and view our prices as “affordable” as compared to the markets they are coming from.

I don’t have this in a statistical format however the top reasons I have seen people move up here were a combination of these factors:

• Boomerang buyers: people that grew up here and then moved away for career opportunities. Most “boomerang buyers” have typically moved back up here after retirement. With remote working being more common I am seeing many people still working moving back at much younger ages.

• Close to family: In many families I have seen a good portion of the family move up here from other areas. After a majority of a family members have moved it has been conducive for most of the rest of the family to relocate here.

• Family history: “My grandmother or Dad once lived there and that is how I became aware of the area” This is a common introduction to buyers of our area.

• Michigan Tech: I have seen many people relocate up here and there awareness of the area started with going to Michigan Tech.

• Nature: Our recreational opporunities are great and we have great lifestyles up here for those who enjoy the outdoors. Mt. Bohemia and our ski and bike trails are great things to have.