Simcoe & District Real Estate Board

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board totaled 96 units in March 2024. This was a decrease of 6.8% (seven sales) from March 2023.

Home sales were 18.2% below the five-year average and 11.9% below the 10-year average for the month of March.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 229 units over the first three months of the year. This was a small gain of 3.2% (seven sales) from the same period in 2023.

“Similar to many other areas in Ontario, the traditionally bustling spring season got off to a robust start. Despite a decline from the same period last year, March sales soared to the highest single month total since the summer of 2023, marking an increase of nearly 40% from February,” said Drew Hemsley, President of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board. “New listings also experienced a significant rise in March, leading to an uptick in the number of active listings at the end of the month. This development is particularly favourable for buyers, who now have a broader array of homes to choose from. Although there has been a steady rise in sales since the start of the year, it is still uncertain whether this momentum will carry through the spring and beyond. However, for now, the demand for MLS® listed homes in Simcoe & District remains strong.”

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 $563,600 in March 2024, a modest gain of 3.6% compared to March 2023.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $563,700, up modestly by 3.6% on a year-over-year basis in March. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $549,100, unchanged compared to a year earlier.

The average price of homes sold in March 2024 was $666,693, increasing by 1.9% from March 2023.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $636,325, down only 0.4% from the first three months of 2023.

The dollar value of all home sales in March 2024 was $64 million, down by 5.1% from the same month in 2023.

The number of new listings saw an increase of 20.1% from March 2023. There were 221 new residential listings in March 2024. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of March in more than a decade.

New listings were 18.7% above the five-year average and 26.5% above the 10-year average for the month of March.

Active residential listings numbered 400 units on the market at the end of March, a notable gain of 17.6% from the end of March 2023. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of March in more than five years.

Active listings were 66.3% above the five-year average and 42.8% above the 10-year average for the month of March.

Months of inventory numbered 4.2 at the end of March 2024, up from the 3.3 months recorded at the end of March 2023 and above the long-run average of 2.8 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.