“Resale housing demand in the region has been very strong since the spring, and that continued in October with sales actually setting a new record for the month,” said Wendy Elzner, President of the Barrie and District Association of REALTORS®. “Some 4,174 homes have traded hands in the region so far this year. That’s the second best January to October sales figure on record after 2007.”

The year-to-date average price for all homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in October 2013 was $319,863, up seven per cent from the same period in 2012.

The year-to-date average price figure for homes sold within the City of Barrie was $301,209. This was a six 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 October 2013 was $124.6 million, up 10 per cent from year-ago levels.

New residential listings declined nine per cent from a year earlier to 538 units October 2013. This was decade low for new listings at this time of the year. Falling supply combined with strong demand is resulting in an increasingly tight market in the region.

Overall supply remains below levels seen in most of the past decade. Active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System numbered 1,317 units at the end of October 2013, down nine per cent from levels at the end of October 2012.

There were 3.3 months of inventory at the end of October 2013. This was down from 3.7 months at the end of October 2012 and stood below the long-run average for this time of year as well. 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 438 units in October, rising 11 per cent compared to October 2012. The total value of all properties sold in October 2013 was $135.8 million, up 19 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

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