Competition Remains Hot And Prices Continues To Rise

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled a record 702 units over the first three months of the year. This was up by 24.2% from the same period in 2020.

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 $428,900 in March 2021, up sharply by 32.1% compared to March 2020. The benchmark price for single-family homes was $432,100, a substantial increase of 33.3% on a year-over-year basis in March. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $346,500, a more moderate gain of 6.3% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $264,800, increasing by 20.3% from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in March 2021 was a record $646,488, a substantial increase of 44.9% from March 2020.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $613,678, a jump of 46.2% from the first three months of 2020.

The dollar value of all home sales in March 2021 was $217.9 million, more than double the levels from a year earlier, rocketing up 123% from the same month in 2020. This was a new record for the month of March and was also the largest dollar value of homes sold for any month in history.

The number of new listings saw a gain of 20.7% from March 2020. There were 431 new residential listings in March 2021. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of March in five years. Active residential listings numbered 370 units on the market at the end of March, down sharply by 49.1% from the end of March 2020. Active listings haven’t been this low in the month of March in more than three decades.

Months of inventory numbered 1.1 at the end of March 2021, down from the 3.3 months recorded at the end of March 2020 and below the long-run average of 6.1 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.

The REALTORS® Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound represents approximately 400+ REALTORS® registered with its member offices.

The geographical area served by the Association is in southwestern Ontario, bordered by Lake Huron and Georgian Bay including Bruce and Grey Counties, and part of Wellington County.