Niagara Association of REALTORS®

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Niagara Association of REALTORS® (NAR) totaled 560 units in July 2024. This was a modest decline of 2.6% (15 sales) from July 2023.

Home sales were 19.7% below the five-year average and 23.4% below the 10-year average for the month of July.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 4,052 units over the first seven months of the year. This was nearly unchanged, down only 0.9% from the same period in 2023.

“Home sales were flat on a year-over-year basis and seem to have stalled out over the past few months, while new listings were up to the highest July level in over 30 years,” said Nathan Morrissette, President of the Niagara Association of REALTORS® (NAR). “With overall inventories at their most elevated in a decade and the market flirting between buyer’s and balanced territory we’ve got a challenging road ahead. However, the good news on the horizon is that interest rates are expected to continue to moderate over the rest of this year and next which should continue to bring more buyers in off the sidelines.”

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 $646,900 in July 2024, down modestly by 3.3% compared to July 2023.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $662,000, a minor decrease of 3.3% on a year-over-year basis in July. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $618,700, a slight reduction of 0.7% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $445,500, falling by 5.4% from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in July 2024 was $693,095, a minor decrease of 3.4% from July 2023.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $695,208, a small reduction of 1.4% from the first seven months of 2023.

The dollar value of all home sales in July 2024 was $388.1 million, falling by 5.9% from the same month in 2023.

The number of new listings saw a modest gain of 3.6% from July 2023. There were 1,477 new residential listings in July 2024. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of July in more than three decades.

New listings were 12.2% above the five-year average and 21% above the 10-year average for the month of July.

Active residential listings numbered 3,165 units on the market at the end of July, up by 27.9% from the end of July 2023. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of July in more than a decade.

Active listings were 51.8% above the five-year average and 54.3% above the 10-year average for the month of July.

Months of inventory numbered 5.7 at the end of July 2024, up from the 4.3 months recorded at the end of July 2023 and above the long-run average of 3.1 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.