Area home sales remain strong

Article content

Home sales and prices continued to rise in October, says the president of the Brantford Regional Real Estate Association.

“We started off slow this year and then, in July, it was like someone pressed a switch and sales started to increase,” Rose Sicoli said Tuesday. “As has been the case since the summer, home sales remained strong in October, only missing the 2017 record for that month by a single transaction.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Area home sales remain strong Back to video

“With the balance of supply and demand still very much in the seller’s territory, the average home price hit another new all-time record in October.”

The average sale price in October was $471,955, a 10.2 per cent increase over October 2018. The more comprehensive year-to-date average was $452,017, up eight per cent for the first 10 months of 2018.

The 217 homes sold in October represent a 21.2 per cent increase in sales compared to October 2018. On a year-to-date basis, home sales so far this year total 1,943 units, up 13.7 per cent for the same time period in 2018.

The boost in sales combined with the increase in the average price pushed the dollar value of home sales over the $100 million mark for the first time ever for the month of October and only the eighth time for any month in history.

The dollar value of all home sales in October was $102.4 million, up 33.7 per cent when compared to October 2018.

The city is attracting a lot of out-of-town buyers, including people from the Greater Toronto Area who see Brantford as a great place for commuters, Sicoli said. The VIA train can get people to downtown Toronto in a hour and Brantford is also within commuting distance to London, Hamilton, Oakville and Burlington.

Meanwhile, sales of all property types – residential, commercial, industrial – numbered 225 with a total value of $106.6 million, up 27.9 per cent from October 2018.

There were 284 new residential listings in October 2019, down four listing or 1.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis. Active residential listings numbered 411 units at the end of October. While this represents an increase of 12.3 per cent from the end of October 2018, it remains well below the long-term average for this time of year of about 750 listings, the association says.

Homes spent roughly the same amount of time on the market in October 2019 than they had a year earlier. Homes spent about 20.5 days on the market before being sold last month, up from 18 days in October 2018.

Vball@postmedia.com
twitter.com/EXPVBall