April Newsletter / March statistics
January | Change from to | January 2011 February 2011 | February | Change from to | February 2011 March 2011 |
New Listings | 2,631 | 498 | +18.5% | 2,960 | 329 | +11.1% |
Active listings | 6,389 | 756 | +11.8% | 6,885 | 496 | +7.2% |
Sales | 1,044 | 309 | +29.6% | 1,503 | 459 | +30.5% |
Average Sale price *House and Condo sales | $295,422 | $6,787 | +2.2% | $305,809 | $9,875 | +3.2% |
House | $359,934 | $3,658 | +1.0% | $378,912 | $18,978 | +5.0% |
Condo | $230,911 | $9,917 | +4.2% | $232,706 | $1,795 | +0.7% |
What do these statistics tell us?
It would appear that the spring market has arrived, with the numbers up again across the board. Sales are up 30% from February. This will start to drag up the prices, we can see for the second month prices have risen, 6.2% for houses and 3.9% for condos, since the beginning of this year. 2010 ended with an average house price of $355,271 and condo price of $223,454.
So where are we headed? In 2010 we saw a similar spike in activity after mortgage rates and rules where changed. Buyers anxious not to loose their longer amortization periods and lower interest rates flooded into the market. As with most, sequels do not live up to the original, in my opinion the market will show that it has a more secure foundation this year and will not show the signs of decline that appeared last year.
While we have seen a significant increase in activity this is typical of this time of year. With fewer buyers anxious due to impeding changes we will not see the buying frenzy that we saw last March and April. In April of last year we saw a significant increase of listings without the corresponding increase in sales driving down prices due to an over supply. While inventory numbers are similar to those of last year, I am anticipating that the number of sales will keep pace with the number of listings thereby allowing homes to retain their value.
Dave Dry
Realtor, Re/Max Real Estate
Office: (780) 457 3777
Cel: (780) 446 3727
Fax: (780) 478 7017