Simcoe & District Real Estate Board

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board totaled 65 units in July 2022. This was a substantial reduction of 50% from July 2021.

Home sales were 47.5% below the five-year average and 45.8% below the 10-year average for the month of July.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 704 units over the first seven months of the year. This was a significant decrease of 16.8% from the same period in 2021.

“MLS® home sales in July came in at half of the July 2021 total. The Bank of Canada’s aggressive attempt to wrangle inflation has had a dramatic impact on the cost of borrowing. As a direct result, demand has weakened, due in part to the mortgage rate hike, and would-be buyers appear to be waiting to see how the rebalancing of the market plays out before rejoining the buyers pool,” said Melissa Mummery, President of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board. “The combination of weaker demand and above-average number of newly listed properties is helping to relieve the upward price pressure our local market has been experiencing. The July reading of the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark Price posted a single digit year-over-year percentage gain for the first time since before the pandemic started. In short, sales are down, listings are up, overall inventory is stable, and prices are moderating. Over the past six months the market has moved from an entrenched seller’s market, to a balanced market, and then shifted almost immediately to a buyer’s market. With additional rate hikes on the horizon it is reasonable to expect that market conditions will remain in favour of buyers at least in the short term but more likely through the end of the year.”

“This is where we write our wonderous and insightful quote,” said Melissa Mummery, President of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board. “Obviously we write the rest of our insights here.”

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 $598,900 in July 2022, up by 8% compared to July 2021.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $598,800, an increase of 7.9% on a year-over-year basis in July. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $617,000, a sizable gain of 15.7% compared to a year earlier.

The average price of homes sold in July 2022 was $759,315, up by 28.1% from July 2021.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $744,340, an increase of 20.2% from the first seven months of 2021.

The dollar value of all home sales in July 2022 was $49.4 million, a big decline of 36% from the same month in 2021.

The number of new listings was up by 10.4% from July 2021. There were 181 new residential listings in July 2022. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of July in more than a decade.

New listings were 6.7% above the five-year average and 12.1% above the 10-year average for the month of July.

Active residential listings numbered 360 units on the market at the end of July, more than double the levels from a year earlier, surging 122.2% from the end of July 2021.

Active listings were 31.2% above the five-year average and 8.9% below the 10-year average for the month of July.

Months of inventory numbered 5.5 at the end of July 2022, up from the 1.2 months recorded at the end of July 2021 and above the long-run average of 3.6 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.