March Newsletter
Market activity for the month of February 2011.
| January | Change from to | December 2010 January 2011 | February | Change from to | January 2011 February 2011 |
New Listings | 2,142 | 293 | 23.2% | 2,631 | 498 | +18.5% |
Active listings | 5,633 | -88 | -1.5% | 6,389 | 756 | +11.8% |
Sales | 735 | -302 | -38.5% | 1,044 | 309 | +29.6% |
Average Sale price *House and Condo sales | $288,635 | -727 | -0.25% | $295,422 | $6,787 | +2.2% |
House | $356,276 | $1,005 | 0.28% | $359,934 | $3,658 | +1.0% |
Condo | $220,994 | -$2,460 | -1.1% | $230,911 | $9,917 | +4.2% |
What do these statistics tell us?
I wish that I could tell you that these numbers say that the winter weather is over and warmer spring temperatures are coming, unfortunately I can’t.
What I can tell you is that the spring market is coming and with it comes more activity. We can see that the numbers are up across the board. While prices are staying more or less flat for the moment we can see that sales are outpacing listings. There is now about a six month inventory (active listings divided by sales), which compares well to last year at this time. If inventory numbers follow the traditional trend then we will see our highest activity in June through August. This brings with it the highest average sale prices, as well as the highest number of sales. The downside is that the sale to listing ratio falls, meaning that it takes longer for a home to sell as the number of new listings out paces the number of sales.
Predictions for 2011 vary greatly from a soft and steady market to another boom; the general consensus is that we will see a moderate growth through the year, ending somewhere 3% - 5% above where we started in January. If the first two months are anything to gauge by, we are on track. The only unknown is how much effect the recent changes to the mortgage rules and interest rates have had. What we saw last year after similar changes was the market peaking early then declining through the remainder of the year.
Making your Real Estate needs my priority
Dave Dry
Realtor, Re/Max Real Estate
Office: (780) 457 3777
Cel: (780) 446 3727
Fax: (780) 478 7017