Numbers can definitely tell a story.
After four months of declining-but-still-very-strong sales, there was a nice uptick in August throughout the Southern Georgian Bay area. The market has remained relatively robust and in fact, it was the second-best August ever in terms of volume.
The year-to-date sales volume figure of $1.6 billion is a record-setting one, according to the latest market report from Royal LePage’s Locations North. It’s up an incredible 46% from 2020. The number of units sold is up 10% and new listings were up ever-so-slightly from the same period.
In other good news, there’s a record year-to-date average sale price as well, of $853,850. This is up 33% from just a year ago. Sellers are not only getting more money for their properties, they are selling them faster; days on the market dropped to 20, down from 49.
That said, for the month of August itself, sales volume was down 18%. Fewer units were sold—219 compared to last year’s 407, which is a substantial drop of 46%. We have to keep in mind, however, that August 2020 set an all-time regional monthly record. New listings were also down this month by 31% from a year ago.
What this all means is a continuation of what we’ve been seeing over the last year and a bit: the demand for listings is greater than the supply. There is currently one month of inventory available and it is safe to say that it’s definitely still a sellers’ market.
Looking specifically at the month of August, the average sale price in the region topped $900,000 at $916,410. That’s a very healthy increase of 35%. We’re also seeing a lot more sales in the higher price brackets: sales were up 143% in the $800-$999K range, up 112% in the $1M-1.499M range, and up an astounding 175% in the over $2M bracket. These figures show phenomenal growth since 2019.
All categories are selling well, including single-family homes, and condos and townhomes. The demand for vacant land has positively soared—dollar sales were up 208% from 2020, unit sales were up 55%, and the average sale price for a piece of vacant land is up 93% from last year. Property owners in Southern Georgian Bay have experienced huge gains, both generally and relative to inflation, since 2010.
Based on past performance, we don’t really expect to see a seasonal drop-off in sales until at least November. That means we should be able to look forward to continuing strong sales and buyer interest in the region throughout the Fall.
The REALTORS® at Locations North are the experts in luxury real estate properties throughout South Georgian Bay, with offices in Collingwood, Thornbury, Creemore, Craigleith, Meaford, Wasaga Beach and Stayner. View their listings.