November Real Estate Sales Down19%

The real estate roller coaster ride of recent months continued in the month of November as overall sales took a steep dive after posting a substantial gain the prior month.

  MLS® unit sales reported through the Georgian Triangle Association of REALTORS® (GTAR) dropped 19% in November with 135 properties sold compared to 167 in the same month one year ago, Dollar volume declined by 17% totaling $39.6 million versus $47.5 million in November 2011. These results are consistent with other areas of the country as Canada’s overall housing market slows partly due to the season but also stemming from a weaker demand and tightened mortgage rules.

  Despite the up and downs of recent months as shown in the accompanying graphs, area real estate sales for the year are running 7% ahead of 2011 both in terms of units sold and dollar volume. A total of 1,871 properties have sold through the GTAR MLS® system this year compared to 1,753 in 2011. At the end of November last year, year-to-date sales in units were down 3% while total dollar volume was unchanged from 2010. Given these statistics from one year ago, a 7% represents a much improved market despite the inconsistency in activity from one month to the next.

  Through most of 2012, the upper end of the market has remained somewhat soft. Residential sales over $1.5 million are running about 57% to 2011 with just 4 MLS® sales reported year-to-date. Sales between $1 to $1.5 million total 22 properties, the same number as last year. As of this posting there are 92 residential listings of properties for sale over $1 million, given the current rate of sales that represents 40 months (3.3 years) worth of available inventory in this price range. Where we have seen a significant increase in sales is in the $500,000 to $600,000 price range which is up 36% with 82 sales this year compared to 60 in 2011. The $800,000 to $900,000 category has also seen a significant increase with 13 sales this year versus 8 in 2011, an increase of 62%.

  Overall, the number of new MLS® listings year-to-date are up just 1% which when compared to the 7% sales increase shows that the market is moving to a more balanced ratio of listings to sales. Nonetheless, there are still 3.3 properties listed for every 1 property sold so buyers for the most part have plenty of choices.