BLOG Category Archives: Real Estate Market

All property listings were 19.8 per cent lower than the same month last year, but 5.4 per cent higher than the 10-year average.

“We definitely saw a real estate market hit by the winter chill,” said RAHB CEO George O’Neill. “Both listings and sales were considerably lower than the 10-year average for the month of January. Even so, with more listings at the end of the month than last year, we have a more balanced market, with a sales-to-new listings ratio of 56.7 per cent and over three months of listing inventory for the residential market.” Seasonally adjusted* sales of residential properties were 30.6 per cent lower than the same month last year, with the average sale price up 4.2 per cent for the month. Seasonally adjusted numbers of new listings were 6.7 per cent higher than January of 2017.

We continue to see a healthy number of listings coming onto the real estate market, which is a welcome relief from the low inventory earlier this year, said RAHB CEO George O’Neill. Although sales are down compared to last year, they are still higher than average, which means there are also still lots of buyers.

Two months ago, in September, we saw a dip in what had been a weakening seller’s market, and then a bit of a rebound in October as is often expected. This past month, in November, the sales-to-new-listing ratio was around 67 per cent over the entire month, but is now trending downward toward a balanced market.

Now that we are going into the year-end holiday season, we expect to see a bit of a lull – that is the traditional rhythm of the real estate market, noted O’Neill. We continue to urge buyers and sellers to contact a REALTOR® to learn more about new mortgage guidelines coming into effect on January 1, 2018 – the new guidelines may affect their purchase or sale.