Huron-Perth real estate market once again tilted in favour of sellers

Article content

A slower-than-expected month has once again given sellers the upper hand in the local real estate market.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Huron-Perth real estate market once again tilted in favour of sellers Back to video

“Sales activity was showing promising signs of a rebound in the two months prior to July but fell back to more subdued levels,” Huron Perth Association of Realtors president Bob Heimpel said in the group’s monthly report. “The resurgence in new supply coming back to the market has not materialized at this point, and that’s a key ingredient that we’re missing to the overall recovery in our market.”

The 167 homes that changed hands in July was up slightly from the same period a year ago but down significantly from five- and 10-year averages. For the year, sales have dropped nearly 10 per cent from the same period in 2022.

“Benchmark prices are on their way back up but will likely not touch the records of last year any time soon,” Heimpel said. “However, the market is once again back in seller’s territory and overall inventories are trending lower, which should entice cautiously sidelined sellers who have been waiting for a clearer sign of a good time to list their properties.”

New listings fell 10.5 per cent from July 2022 but were ahead of five- and 10-year averages for the month. There were 566 residential listings on the market to start August, a jump of 15.3 per cent from last year and the most for July in more than five years.

Months of inventory numbered 3.4 at the end of July, up from the three months recorded at the end of July 2022 and above the long-run average of 3.1 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The benchmark price – the value of a “typical” home in a community, based on the most popular combination of features – for single-family homes last month was $588,500, a drop of three per cent on a year-over-year basis. By comparison, the benchmark apartment price was $428,700, a decrease of 22.6 per cent from 2022.

The average price of homes sold in July was $628,871, a two per cent gain from July 2022. For the year, prices are down 9.9 per cent to 636,201.

cosmith@postmedia.com