Residential property sales recorded through the MLS® System of the Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® Inc., as well as and the average selling price of those sales, both recorded increases in 2011 when compared to 2010.

“2011 was a good year for the resale housing market in the region, with the defining characteristic being the return of stable and predictable demand from one month to the next following the wild swings we saw in the previous three years,” said Catherine Garbe, President of the Barrie and District Association of REALTORS®. “Both activity and prices were up in 2011 compared to 2010, with sales advancing by three per cent and the average home price rising by two per cent.”

A total of 4,228 homes traded hands in 2011, up three per cent from the annual sales figure in 2010.

The average price for all homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in 2011 was $287,588, up two per cent from levels in 2010.

The annual average price figure for homes sold just within the City of Barrie was $268,821. This was also a two per cent increase when compared to 2010.

The Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® cautions that over a period of time, the use of average price information can be useful in establishing trends, but it does not indicate actual prices in widely divergent areas or account for price differentials between geographical areas.

Home sales numbered 190 units in December, down just two per cent compared to the same month in 2010.

Within the city of Barrie, sales activity was slightly below the overall trend for the region. The city of Barrie saw 114 residential sales in December, down five per cent from one year earlier.

The dollar value of all home sales in December 2011 was $55.2 million, up three per cent from year-ago levels.

New residential listings fell seven per cent from a year earlier to 241 units in December. For the year as a whole, some 7,676 listings were added to the Association’s MLS® System in 2011, down four per cent from 2010.

Active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System numbered 1,092 units at the end of 2011. This was down just one per cent from the overall supply of homes on the market at the end of 2010.

There were 4.7 months of inventory at the end of December 2011 on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from 4.5 months in November. 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.

Sales of all property types in the Barrie region numbered 194 units in December, down one per cent compared to December 2010. The total value of all properties sold in December 2011 was $56.4 million, up three per cent from December 2010.

The Barrie and District Association of REALTORS® Inc. covers a geographical area that includes the City of Barrie and part or all of the surrounding townships, including Springwater, Oro-Medonte, Innisfil, Essa, Bradford-West Gwillimbury and Clearview. The Association provides continuing education, Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®), statistical information, and many other services to its members.