MLS® dollar sales as reported by the Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS® (SGBAR) for the municipalities clustered around the bottom of Georgian Bay topped $1.037 billion for the year which represents a 29% increase over 2015. To put that into perspective, area MLS® real estate sales in terms of dollars have almost doubled since 2010 when sales totalled $544 million for the year. It is also important to note that MLS® sales for the most part, do not include the significant number of new homes under construction in the various subdivisions scattered around the area. 
Unit MLS® sales for the year hit 2,750 individual transactions an increase of 15% over 2015 when 2,386 MLS® sales were reported. We have continued to see strong market activity for single family homes in the mid to upper price ranges which is why the increase in MLS® sales dollars far exceeds the MLS® unit sales increase. As prices for single family homes in the area continue to increase, sales below $350,000 get less and less with each passing year as fewer and fewer properties can be bought for under that price point. Conversely, sales between $350,000 and $499,999 were up 43% for the year while sales between $500,000 to $799,999 and $800,000 to $999,999 increased by 55% respectively. Lastly sales over $1 million totalled 82 units an increase of 71% over the prior year.
MLS® single family home sales in 2016 totalled 1,773 properties, an increase of 7% over 2015 when 1,655 homes changed hands. The municipalities of Clearview, Grey Highlands and Meaford posted the largest gains in MLS® single family home sales, single family home sales in Clearview totalled 209 units, an increase of 32% over 2015. MLS® single family home sales in the Municipality of Meaford were up 19% in 2016 with 166 units sold while Grey Highlands saw a resurgence in MLS® sales activity after several years of lacklustre demand with 71 properties changing hands representing an 18% increase over the prior year. Single family home sales in Wasaga Beach were up 13% in 2016 while MLS® sales of single family homes in Collingwood and the Blue Mountains had modest increases of 6% and 3% respectively. 
During 2016 we saw a strong resurgence in vacant land sales particularly in the Blue Mountains where new subdivisions such as Phase 3 of Nipissing Ridge continued to come on stream. MLS® vacant lot sales in 2016 totalled 285 properties compared to just 200 in the prior year, an increase of 42%, Vacant land sales during 2016 in the Blue Mountains of 105 properties represents a 46% increase over last year. Vacant land sales in this municipality represent 37% of the market total which helps to explain why existing sales of single family home sales in the municipality were the weakest of all other areas.
In my next post I will review the area's condominium sales activity in 2016, a segment of the market which continues to grow and showed the largest gain in terms of a unit sales increase for 2016. The amount of available housing inventory continues to remain well below market demand which is creating market dynamics unlike anything we have seen in recent years. This too I will cover in more detail in a future post.Happy New Year and as always, should you have any questions about the market information provided herein or would like to discuss you particular real estate situation, please do not hesitate to Contact Me.
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