January was another slow month for real estate in Bruce and Grey counties, as a surge of new listings hit the market.
The Realtors Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound says 117 homes sold, a decrease of 33.9 per cent from January 2022. Home sales were more than 18 per cent below the five-year average for the month, and nearly 14 per cent under the 10-year average.
The realtors association’ says the total dollar value of all home sales in January was $65.6-million, sinking more than 50.9 per cent from the same month in 2022.
Average home prices in Grey Bruce were just over $560,000, a year-over-year decline of 25.7 per cent. Month-to-month, it’s a decline of more than 13 per cent from December 2022 when the average price of homes sold in the region was $646,000.
RAGBOS notes the MLS Home Price Index is a more advanced and accurate tool to gauge a neighbourhood’s home price levels and trends. It is based on the value home buyers assign to various housing attributes, which tend to evolve over time.
Using the MLS Home Price Index, the composite benchmark for Grey Bruce was $530,700 in January, a decline of 8.3 per cent from the same month last year. It is about 2.3 per cent lower than the benchmark price of $542,700 the region posted in December.
The benchmark price for single family homes in Grey Bruce was $537,100, a decline of 8.4 per cent year-over-year. For townhouse/row units in January it was $457,300 (a year-over-year decrease of 9.3 per cent) and for apartments it was $350,800 (0.1 per cent annual decrease).
New listings on the regional housing market spiked in January, and the overall supply remains elevated over recent years.
The realtors’ association says 251 new listings hit the market, the largest number of new listings in the month of January in more than five years.
RAGBOS explains active listings at the end of January 2023 are more than 184.5 per cent higher than last year and at their highest level in more than five years for the month, with 751 residential units available for sale. That is more than 44 per cent above the five-year average for January in the region, but actually 12.7 per cent below the longer-run, 10-year average.
One metric indicates the pace of Grey Bruce’s housing market has settled near the long-run average for this time of year. RAGBOS says months of inventory numbered 6.4 at the end of January, up from 1.5 months recorded in the same month last year. The number indicates how long it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
The long run average is 6.8 months for this time of year.
The Realtors Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound covers a geographical area that includes Grey and Bruce counties, and part of Wellington County.