MARQUETTE, Mich (WZMQ) – The cost of buying a home in the U.P. has been steadily rising as we reach higher prices. It’s no surprise that as you hunt for housing, you might be seeing high numbers in the city of Marquette. Since 2014, the U.P. has seen an increase in the cost of buying a home by around 7%. “I think it’s looked at as you know are we gonna see another 2008 or something like that and it really is different than what is happening”, said Real Estate Dylan Willey.
Real estate agent Dylan Willey says that a large majority of the home investment opportunity in the Marquette area has more than one offer on the home. In turn, it’s decreasing the amount of buying power each resident has. “People buying power is not as much as it was, say in March when you were gonna get a 3% or a 3 and a half percent interest rate, and now you looking at probably 7”, says Willey.
Monitoring trends such as rental housing, general housing prices, and other economic factors that could affect housing prices, Willey says the market is hitting a plateau. “As a landlord I’ve been landording since the 80s. I was buying houses when Ronald Regan was president”, said Brian Harsch.
Of course, prices have increased since then and as a long-time landlord of the Marquette Area, Brian Harsch says that this trend has been seen before. He notes that as the popular investment of Airbnb’s become more widely used, there is less and less real estate available for families to move into.
As time has gone on, more short-term housing like month-to-month leasing has made it difficult to lock in a forever home.