November was another strong month for home sales in Grey Bruce.
According to the OnePoint Association of Realtors, 228 units sold in the region last month, a substantial increase of 43.4 per cent over November 2023. But the sales activity number was still below the longer-term trends for the month (10.1 per cent below the five-year average, and 4.7 per cent below the 10-year average).
Prices advanced slightly. The realtors’ association says the average price of homes sold was just over $668,000. That’s 1.4 per cent annual increase, and month-to-month it’s four per cent higher than the number the region posted in October ($642,000).
“Sales activity shot up in November with an unexpected strength, putting us back above typical levels for this time of year,” says Bonnie Looby, President of the OnePoint Association of Realtors in a statement. “With interest rates gradually winding down we knew that buyers would come back to the market, but we weren’t anticipating this kind of rush so soon. There could be a sense of FOMO among younger first-timers, or keen buyers who are trying to get in before the combination of mortgage regulation changes and further interest rate cuts spur even more competition for demand. In any case, our market is looking very active as we head into what is usually a quieter time of year.”
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $646,786, a minor gain of 1.5 per cent from the first 11 months of 2023.
RAGBOS notes the MLS composite benchmark price is a more advanced and accurate tool to gauge a neighbourhood’s home price levels and trends. It is based on the value home buyers assign to various housing attributes, which tend to evolve over time.
The composite benchmark home price for Grey Bruce last month was $563,900, down by two per cent from November 2023. On a monthly basis, it is slightly lower (around 1.2 per cent) than the benchmark price the region posted in October. ($571,000).
The benchmark price for single family homes was $572,100, essentially unchanged year-over-year. For townhouse/row units it was $479,900 (a year-over-year decline of 2.9 per cent) and for apartments it was $370,400 (slight 0.9 per cent annual increase).
The total dollar value of all home sales in November was $152.3-million, a substantial increase of 45.3 per cent from the same month in 2023.
The regional housing market continues to have ample supply, and new listings surged last month. RAGBOS says there were 1,168 active listings at the end of November, the most for the month in more than five years.
This as more than 334 new listings hit the market last month — the largest number for November in more than a decade.
One metric indicates the pace of Grey Bruce’s housing market is moving slightly slower than the longer term trend for this time of year. RAGBOS says months of inventory numbered 5.1 at the end of November. That is slightly above the long-run average of 4.5 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
The OnePoint Association of Realtors provides monthly data on the Grey Bruce housing market. It is a new unified body of nearly 3,000 real estate professionals across Grey, Bruce, Huron, Perth, Wellington, Georgian Bay, Simcoe, Parry Sound, Haliburton and Muskoka.