The Realtor’s Association of Hamilton-Burlington has just released our September market stats. We have officially entered into the fall market, so it’s time for a quick update. It was a very busy month here for our team. As a company, our sales were up over 40 percent in September over September of last year, which as of that time was a record for us. It’s been a very busy and very positive month.
Looking at where things are headed for the fall, we are looking at a fairly balanced market ahead. October and November are traditionally the busier months of the fall. We were a bit surprised at how robust the activity was here in September, so things are looking very positive for the rest of the season. We’ll have a bit of a temporary pause around Thanksgiving, but as soon as the long weekend passes, things should be moving full steam ahead.
Sales are actually down 3 percent, so it’s very balanced — give or take a few percent. Sales have completely recovered from the slump that we experienced late in the prior year and early in the year. A few percent up, a few percent down: The moral of the story is that sales are fairly brisk.
It’s very interesting to see that market-wide sales were down, while our sales were up over 40 percent. Again, nothing to be concerned about; very balanced. Things are doing exceptionally well.
New listings are down 9 percent. Last year, 1,325 listings were on the market and this year, 1,208, so fewer homes are coming onto the market. Of course, that is positive for sellers. A smaller inventory leads to less supply and better price points for sellers and puts a little more pressure on buyers, because of lack of inventory and lack of supply.
Active listings were up 23 percent; despite the fact that new listings are down, listings for sale prior carried over to the month, in addition to the new listings. Overall, despite the fact that we had fewer new listings, our listing inventory was still up 23 percent over the same time last year. So we do still have quite a bit of inventory available.
Average prices are up 2 percent again, so we’ve seen average prices up every month since June. We’ve seen average sales prices go up virtually every month for years, except for March, April and May of this year, when our average sales prices were being compared to sales prices from some of the hottest months in 2017. We were a little shy of those numbers this year, but we have really managed to retain the majority of those gains.
Last September, home values, on average, were $489,102; this year, average sales prices are $501,201, creeping over $500,000. Looking at things from a regional perspective, we remain one of the best opportunities in Canada. Sitting at about a half-million dollars, versus neighbouring communities, Hamilton remains a bargain.
Average days on market actually decreased; last year in September, homes took about 34.3 days to sell; this year, we’re selling in about 31.8 days for an overall very balanced month. Prices continue to be positive. Sales are stable. Days on market are very stable. Inventory is fairly stable but a bit elevated at the moment, so, all signs point to a very positive and busy fall market.
We expect prices to continue to be positive throughout the remainder of the year, and really, here’s to capping off the year on a positive note after a number of changes that were kind of thrown at us here earlier in the year with the new mortgage rules and the final effects of the housing plan. It’ll be nice to end the year on a positive note and really get into 2019 with a fresh start.
