Area Real Estate Sales Up 23% in July

  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.