Grey Bruce Owen Sound Home Sales Surge Higher in August 2019
According to the Realtor’s Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound, residential sales activity in the GBOS area totaled 333 units in August 2019. This was a 17.7% jump from August 2018 and was the third best-ever August sales figure after 2016 and 2007. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 1,878 units over the first eight months of the year, down 6.3% from the same period in 2018.
The average price of homes sold in August 2019 was $411,433, down 7.4% from August 2018. That said, the August 2018 average price reading was an aberration — the result of one unusually expensive residential property sale. Excluding that one transaction lowers the August 2018 average price by almost $80,000 to $364,640 and makes the August 2019 reading a 12.8% increase. It would also make August 2019 a record.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $387,001, up 8.2% from the first eight months of 2018.
New residential listings in the region numbered 400 units in August 2019, an increase of 15.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sales gains in regions with low supply are often coincident with increases in new supply.
Overall supply remains near record lows. Active residential listings numbered 1,085 units at the end of August, an increase of 17.3% from the end of August 2018 but only half the long-run average for this time of the year.
Months of inventory numbered 3.3 at the end of August 2019, unchanged from the end of August 2018 and still a record low 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 dollar value of all home sales in August 2019 was $137 million, up 8.9% from the same month in 2018. This was not only a new record for the month of August, it was actually the largest dollar value of homes sold in any month in history.
Sales of all property types numbered 418 units in August 2019, an increase of 17.1% from August 2018. The total value of all properties sold was $168.3 million, rising 14.3% from August 2018.
