Guelph Home Sales Set New Annual Record in 2013

According to statistics provided by the MLS® System of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®, home sales numbered 136 units in December 2013. This was an increase of six per cent from the same month last year.

Sales of all types of properties in the Guelph region numbered 145 units in December, up by four per cent from year-ago levels.

For the year as a whole, residential sales numbered 3,164. This was an increase of eight per cent from 2012 and marked the best year on record for resale housing demand in the Guelph region.

“2013 started off with sales running at fairly average levels, but a very strong second half of the year pushed activity to an all-time record in 2013,” said Kimberley McKenzie, President of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®. “With demand continuing to outpace supply it not surprising that prices continue to rise at a brisk pace. The average selling price rose a further five and a half per cent in 2013.”

The average price of homes sold in December 2013 was $331,978, down three per cent from levels in December 2012. Changes in the mix of sales from month to month can cause volatility in average prices especially in low volume winter months.

The much less volatile annual average price was a record $343,564, up 5.5 per cent from 2012.

The residential dollar volume of sales in December 2013 was $45.1 million, up three per cent from the same month last year. The total value of all properties sold in December 2013 was $47.9 million, down two per cent on a year-over-year basis.

New residential listings numbered 138 units in December, up nine per cent on a year-over-year basis. There were 425 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of December 2013, falling four per cent from a year earlier.

There were 3.1 months of inventory at the end of December 2013, down slightly from 3.5 months a year earlier and well below the long-run average for this time of the year in 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.

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