The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported the residential condominium market saw a 4.3 per cent increase in average sale price in July compared to the same month last year. Median sale prices also saw gains over July of last year.
“With the residential condominium segment of the market continuing to increase in average sale price, we anticipate a continued overall stable market in most segments,” said RAHB President Cameron Nolan.
Seasonally adjusted* sales of residential properties were 2.9 per cent lower than the same month last year, with the average sale price down 2.6 per cent for the month. Seasonally adjusted numbers of new listings were 9.4% per cent lower than the same month last year.
Seasonally adjusted data for residential properties for the month of July:
The slight drop in average sale price in seasonally adjusted data was mirrored by a one per cent reduction in actual sales for the month when compared to the same period last year.
“Does this dip in average sale price signal anything significant? I don’t think so,” said Nolan. “The average sale price is dependent on a number of factors which may change from year to year – the number of high end properties sold versus the number of lower end properties, for instance. We need to see what happens over the next few months before we can say there’s anything significant happening to the market value of properties in our areas.”
Noting that residential sales and listings are also down to the same month last year, Nolan pointed out that “it is common to see fewer listings and sales through the summer months. We have to remember that we are making comparisons to a month last year which had double digit increases over the year before that.”
Year to date, the average sale price for residential units is 6.3 per cent higher for the first seven months of this year compared to the same seven-month period last year. Numbers of residential property sales are down 3.1 per cent. New listings are down 7.5 per cent and there were 22.6 per cent fewer listings active at the end of the month.
“Listing inventory is still the biggest story for this year and we are seeing that reflected in the fewer number of days properties are on the market,” said Nolan.
Every community in RAHB’s marketing area has their own localized residential market. Please refer to the accompanying chart for residential market activities in select areas of RAHB’s jurisdiction.
*Seasonal adjustment removes normal seasonal variations, enabling analysis of monthly changes and fundamental trends in the data.