Residential property sales recorded through the MLS® System of the Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® Inc. numbered 398 units in August 2013. This was little changed from last August, marking a decline of just two per cent (eight sales).

Within the City of Barrie sales activity was down 10 per cent from a year earlier. The City of Barrie saw 236 residential sales in August.

“As has been the case for much of the year so far, the headline sales figures for the entire region continue to mask divergent trends between the City of Barrie and surrounding townships,” said Wendy Elzner, President of the Barrie and District Association of REALTORS®. “Overall residential activity in August was little changed from last year, and is running right in line with an average of the past 10 years. Within the City of Barrie, demand is actually a little lower than that, but that’s being offset by near record levels of activity in surrounding areas.”

Some 3,396 home have traded hands in the region so far this year. While this level of activity has almost been matched a number of times in the past, it nevertheless marks the second strongest first eight months of any year in history. The record was set back in 2007.

The year-to-date average price for all homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in August 2013 was $318,653, up six per cent from the same period in 2012.

The year-to-date average price figure for homes sold within the City of Barrie was $301,394. This was 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 August 2013 was $126.7 million, up seven per cent from year-ago levels.

New residential listings edged up two per cent from a year earlier to 617 units in August 2013.

Overall supply remains below levels in most of the past decade. Active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System numbered 1,420 units at the end of August 2013, down eight per cent from levels at the end of August 2012.

There were 3.6 months of inventory at the end of August 2013. This was down slightly from 3.8 months at the end of August 2012 and stood well 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 411 units in August, edging down seven tenths of one per cent compared to August 2012. The total value of all properties sold in August 2013 was $128.6 million, up six per cent on a year-over-year basis.