Guelph Home Sales Improve in March

According to statistics provided by the MLS® System of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®, home sales numbered 283 units in March 2013. While this remained 14 per cent below the same month last year (which was the second best ever March), it did mark an improvement from the 23 per cent decline recorded in February.

Sales of all types of properties in the Guelph region numbered 298 units in March, down 15 per cent from year-ago levels.

“For more than half a year now, home sales in the region have consistently turned in one better than expected monthly performance followed by a slowdown followed by another better than expected showing, and that trend has shown up again with an improvement in demand in March following a quieter month of February,”
said Matthew Bennett-Monty, President of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®. “Interestingly, a big part of that improvement in activity resulted from increased demand at the higher end of the market, and that pushed the average selling price above the $350,000 mark for the first time ever in March.”

The average price of homes sold in March was a record $358,868, up 13 per cent from March 2012.

Residential dollar volume totalled $101.6 million in March 2013. This was down three per cent from levels recorded in March 2012, and marks just the seventh time in history that the monthly dollar value of all homes sold through the MLS® System of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS® has surpassed the $100 million mark.

The total value of all properties sold in March 2013 was $104.4 million, down six per cent on a year-over-year basis.

New residential listings numbered 431 units in March, down 10 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

There were 650 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of March 2013, rising nine per cent from a year earlier.

There were 2.3 months of inventory at the end of March 2013, up from 1.8 months at the same time last year but right on par with the long-run average for the Guelph region. 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.