Despite the
somewhat cooler summer weather we have been having of late, it certainly has
not dampened the demand for Southern Georgian Bay real estate.
Sales
reported through the MLS® system of theGeorgian Triangle Association of REALTORS® (GTAR) for the month of July reflected a 23% increase with 227
properties sold during the month. Dollar
volume in July of $67.4 million marked a $10.0 million dollar or 17% increase
from July of 2012. We have now had three
consecutive months (May through July) where sales activity has been well above
the same time last year.
Year-to-date MLS® unit sales now total 1,248
properties, an increase of 7% over the first seven months of 2012. Meanwhile, year-to-date MLS® dollar volume
stands at $366.0 million, 9% ahead of last year. More significantly perhaps is that we are
firmly in track to exceed $600.0 million in MLS® sales for 2013, a level never
before attained.
Single family MLS® home sales which have been
lagging behind sales in 2012 and now 2% ahead of last year. MLS® condominium sales continue to remain
very strong in 2013 with unit sales 15% ahead of last year. Vacant land sales are also well ahead of 2012
with 91 sales thus far in 2013 versus 78 in 2012, an increase of 17%.
Following 4
or 5 years when local conditions could technically be deemed a “Buyer’s”
market, we are now witnessing a shift wherein the market is in a more
“balanced” state favouring neither “Buyers” or “Sellers” to any meaningful
amount. The total number of new MLS®
listings year-to-date is down 4% with the number of expired listings also
showing a decrease from one year ago.
Approximately 1 in every 3.3 properties listed on the local MLS® system
has sold year-to-date, down from a ratio of 1 to 3.8 earlier in the year.
None of the above mentioned data includes new
home or condo sales made by developers.
When you factor in the added real estate sales activity that takes place
outside of the MLS® domain, it is not hard to see that the local real estate
market has and continues to make a strong comeback following the downturn we
experienced during the recent recession.
