October Home Sales in Guelph and Area Remain Well Below Average
Guelph and District Association of REALTORS® MLS® home sales remain well below average, but monthly trend shows signs of improvement in October.
The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS® totaled 269 units in October 2022. This was a large reduction of 34.1% from October 2021.
Home sales were 29.5% below the five-year average and 30.4% below the 10-year average for the month of October.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 3,513 units over the first 10 months of the year. This was a significant decrease of 27.1% from the same period in 2021.
“Home sales are still posting significant year-over-year declines as we compare subdued demand resulting from higher interest rates to the historical strength displayed last year. However, looking through the monthly seasonal trend it appears that after bottoming out in August sales are beginning their recovery,” said Dustin Davis, President of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®. “New listings have been coming in under average levels for this time of year but with the weakness in sales activity this has still lifted overall inventories to levels not seen since the third quarter of 2019. Benchmark prices are still declining but the monthly trend is flattening out, suggesting that the market may finally be nearing stabilization. We know there is at least one more rate increase on the horizon before the end of the year but it’s hard to say whether we will reach a plateau before then or not.”
The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures. The overall MLS® HPI composite benchmark price was $810,200 in October 2022, down modestly by 3% compared to October 2021.
The benchmark price for single-family homes was $903,100, a minor decrease of 3.4% on a year-over-year basis in October. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $659,500, a slight reduction of 0.9% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $520,400, increasing by 1.4% from year-ago levels.
The average price of homes sold in October 2022 was $842,082, down sharply by 13.6% from October 2021.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $1,014,049, an increase of 15.3% from the first 10 months of 2021.
The dollar value of all home sales in October 2022 was $226.5 million, a big decline of 43% from the same month in 2021.
The number of new listings increased by 4.9% from October 2021. There were 429 new residential listings in October 2022.
New listings were 9.6% below the five-year average and 11.1% below the 10-year average for the month of October.
Active residential listings numbered 639 units on the market at the end of October, more than double the levels from a year earlier, surging 187.8% from the end of October 2021.
Active listings were 23.1% above the five-year average and 3.6% below the 10-year average for the month of October.
Months of inventory numbered 2.4 at the end of October 2022, up from the 0.5 months recorded at the end of October 2021 and above the long-run average of 1.8 months for this time of year. 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.
