There’s a subtle detail in the numbers for home sales statistics in the region for July, but it’s enough to give hope to a local real estate veteran.
Home sales for last month were up by one unit over July of last year. But it’s the first time there’s been an increase since March 2017.
“The standout in the July housing data for the region was sales in the eastern district (Midland and Penetanguishene, Tay and Tiny, Severn, and Georgian Bay Townships), which jumped 32 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to June,” said Matthew Lidbetter, president of the Southern Georgian Bay Association of Realtors. “After a slow start to 2018, it was the first real sign that things may be starting to turn the corner. It comes alongside improving sales activity in a number of other markets in and around the GTA.”
In the western region (Wasaga Beach, Clearview, Collingwood, The Blue Mountains, Meaford and Grey Highlands), there were 159 homes sold last month, which is down by 4.2 per cent (or seven sales) over July 2017. In the eastern region, 154 units sold which was eight sales above the July 2017 numbers, thus bringing the net increase in sales to one unit.
Year-to-date, home sales for the South Georgian Bay region totalled 1,784 units, which is down by about 26.5 per cent over sales for the first seven months of 2017.
According to the Southern Georgian Bay Association of Realtors, overall supply remains near record lows. There are 1,190 active residential listings in the region as of the end of July 2018. There were 514 new residential listings last month, which is the lowest supply of new listings to hit the market in July since 2002.
The dollar value of all residential transactions in July 2018 was $141.5 million, which is up 6.7 per cent from this time in 2017.
