The Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Oakville-Milton and District Real Estate Board totaled 174 units in October 2023. This was down sharply by 13.9% from October 2022.

Home sales were 41.2% below the five-year average and 48.2% below the 10-year average for the month of October.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 2,467 units over the first 10 months of the year. This was a substantial decrease of 13.5% from the same period in 2022.

“Sales activity continues to trend downward as new listings are moving in the opposite direction,” said Hunter Obee, President of the Oakville-Milton and District Real Estate Board. “Buyers and sellers are once again on opposite sides of the divide, but instead of a dearth of listings there is now an abundance, and where once buyers were plentiful and eager to jump on any available supply they are now cautiously waiting on the sidelines. Our market is very well supplied at the moment and conditions are tilted in favour of buyers, but it will likely take several more months of no further rate hikes from the Bank of Canada before these buyers are ready to start thinking about their return.”

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 $1,242,200 in October 2023, up modestly by 1% compared to October 2022.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $1,440,000, a minor increase of 2.3% on a year-over-year basis in October. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $906,300, a moderate gain of 4.8% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $669,300, increasing by 2.7% from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in October 2023 was $1,332,736, a slight reduction of 0.8% from October 2022.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $1,428,897, decreasing by 5.2% from the first 10 months of 2022.

The dollar value of all home sales in October 2023 was $231.9 million, a sharp decrease of 14.6% from the same month in 2022.

The number of new listings was up by 25.3% from October 2022. There were 515 new residential listings in October 2023.

New listings were 10.1% above the five-year average and 1.8% below the 10-year average for the month of October.

Active residential listings numbered 758 units on the market at the end of October, a substantial increase of 35.1% from the end of October 2022. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of October in five years.

Active listings were 40.3% above the five-year average and 13.7% above the 10-year average for the month of October.

Months of inventory numbered 4.4 at the end of October 2023, up from the 2.8 months recorded at the end of October 2022 and above the long-run average of 2.2 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.