Near-record July for Barrie & District home sales

Within the City of Barrie sales activity was up nine per cent from a year earlier. The City of Barrie saw 277 residential sales in July.

“While home sales in the City of Barrie recorded a healthy year-over-year gain in July, activity in the surrounding townships actually set a new July record, and that’s what pushed the overall sales figure for the region to its second highest level ever for the month of July,” said Wendy Elzner, President of the Barrie and District Association of REALTORS®. “While demand is up, supply continues to trend lower, and that’s resulting in historically tight market conditions. As such, the kind of price growth we’ve been seeing so far in 2013 will likely continue through the end of the year.”

The year-to-date average price for all homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in July 2013 was $318,702, up five per cent from the same period in 2012.

The year-to-date average price figure for homes sold within the City of Barrie was $300,789. This was also a five per cent increase compared to the average selling price in the same period last year.

The Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® cautions that over a period of time, the use of average price information can be useful in establishing trends, but it does not indicate actual prices in widely divergent areas or account for price differentials between geographical areas.

The dollar value of all home sales in July 2013 was $161.2 million, up 25 per cent from year-ago levels.

New residential listings fell three per cent from a year earlier to 677 units in July 2013.

Overall supply remains below levels in most of the past decade. Active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System numbered 1,583 units at the end of July 2013, down six per cent from levels at the end of July 2012.

There were 3.2 months of inventory at the end of July 2013. This was down from four months at the end of July 2012 and also stood below the long-run average 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.

Sales of all property types in the Barrie region numbered 513 units in July, up 19 per cent compared to July 2012. The total value of all properties sold in July 2013 was $165 million, up 23 per cent on a year-over-year basis.