New Brunswick Real Estate Board

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the New Brunswick Real Estate Board totaled 884 units in October 2024. This was an increase of 12% from October 2023.

Home sales were 7.6% below the five-year average and 5.5% above the 10-year average for the month of October.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 8,134 units over the first 10 months of the year. This was a small gain of 2.8% from the same period in 2023.

At the local level home sales activity posted an increase in Saint John (43.1%), Northern and Valley Regions (15.3%), and Fredericton (5.5%) and recorded a decline in Greater Moncton (-3.2%) on a year-over-year basis.

“October saw a solid rebound in sales, bouncing back from September’s slower pace and posting impressive totals for this time of year. The number of newly listed properties remained steady, aligning closely with recent trends,” said Mike Power, Chair of the New Brunswick Real Estate Board. “The MLS® HPI Benchmark Price continued to climb, now up nearly 12% since the end of 2023. As the Bank of Canada hints at further potential rate cuts, sidelined buyers face a key decision: wait for lower rates or move now, weighing the risk that any savings from rate reduction could be countered by rising prices.”

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 $318,500 in October 2024, a gain of 9.5% compared to October 2023.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $319,400, up by 9.5% on a year-over-year basis in October. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $290,100, an increase of 11.6% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $291,300, a sizable gain of 13% from year-ago levels.

The dollar value of all home sales in October 2024 was $284.9 million, up by 19.7% from the same month in 2023.

The number of new listings saw an increase of 19.2% from October 2023. There were 1,248 new residential listings in October 2024. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of October in a decade.

New listings were 13.7% above the five-year average and 15.3% above the 10-year average for the month of October.

Active residential listings numbered 3,185 units on the market at the end of October, a moderate gain of 8.6% from the end of October 2023.

Active listings were 3.5% above the five-year average and 32.9% below the 10-year average for the month of October.

Months of inventory numbered 3.6 at the end of October 2024, down from the 3.7 months recorded at the end of October 2023 and below the long-run average of 6.4 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.