Simcoe & District Real Estate Board

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board totaled 55 units in December 2022. This was down sharply by 26.7% from December 2021.

Home sales were 11.9% below the five-year average and 6.3% below the 10-year average for the month of December.

On an annual basis, home sales totaled 1,094 units over the course of 2022. This was a substantial decrease of 23% from the same period in 2021.

“Annual home sales marked their lowest totals since 2018 as a rapid series of interest rate hikes took their toll on affordability and consumer confidence in 2022,” said Melissa Mummery, President of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board. “Heading into 2023 we are seeing glimmers of hope on the horizon for sales. There is a small upward trend in the monthly data, one that may lead back to more historically normal levels but certainly not the heights of the past two years. New listings are still continuing at a strong and supportive pace, and with overall supply up to healthier levels and benchmark prices down from their all-time records it may be a good time for previously sidelined buyers to consider getting back into the market.”

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 $565,700 in December 2022, a minor decrease of 2.8% compared to December 2021.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $565,800, a small reduction of 2.7% on a year-over-year basis in December. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $549,400, falling by 6.1% compared to a year earlier.

The average price of homes sold in December 2022 was $597,955, a moderate decrease of 5.4% from December 2021.

The more comprehensive annual average price was $701,845, increasing by 12.2% from all of 2021.

The dollar value of all home sales in December 2022 was $32.9 million, a sharp decrease of 30.6% from the same month in 2021.

The number of new listings was up sharply by 50.8% from December 2021. There were 89 new residential listings in December 2022. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of December in more than a decade.

New listings were 39.1% above the five-year average and 44.7% above the 10-year average for the month of December.

Active residential listings numbered 253 units on the market at the end of December, more than double the levels from a year earlier, jumping 256.3% from the end of December 2021. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of December in more than five years.

Active listings were 50.2% above the five-year average and 2.9% above the 10-year average for the month of December.

Months of inventory numbered 4.6 at the end of December 2022, up from the 0.9 months recorded at the end of December 2021 and above the long-run average of 4.5 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.