New Sales Record Set in May
(June 5, 2014 – Hamilton, Ontario) The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 1660 property sales were processed through the RAHB Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) system in May. This represents a 4.1 per cent increase in sales compared to May of last year and sets a new record for sales in any month.
There were 2458 properties listed in May, an increase of eight per cent over the same month last year. End-of-month listing inventory was four per cent lower than last year at the same time.
“Spring weather may have taken its time in arriving, but the spring real estate market certainly took off in May,” said RAHB CEO Ross Godsoe. “We didn’t just trip over the record set in 2009; we beat it by 3.5 per cent.”
Seasonally adjusted data for residential properties for the month of May, 2014:
Seasonally Adjusted Percentage change compared to
Residential Only May/14 Apr/14 Mar/14 Feb/14 Jan/14 May/13
| New Listings | 1751 | 6.8% | 16.0% | 23.1% | 18.0% | 12.0% |
| Sales | 1223 | 8.1% | 10.1% | 17.1% | 14.3% | 8.1% |
| Average Sale Price | $392,098 | -2.4% | -3.0% | -0.3% | -1.6% | -1.8% |
Actual overall residential sales were 4.6 per cent higher than the previous year at the same time and set a new record for residential sales in any month. Residential freehold sales were 2.6 per cent higher than last year while the condominium market saw an increase of 12.9 per cent in sales. The average price of freehold properties showed a decrease of 2.3 per cent compared to the same month last year; the average sale price in the condominium market decreased less than one per cent when compared to the same period last year.
The average sale price is based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold in the RAHB market area. Average sale price information can be useful in establishing long term trends, but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value.
“Having record-setting sales isn’t the whole story,” added Godsoe. “There was also a bump in the number of new listings during the month of May. It wasn’t record-setting, but new listings were higher than the 10-year average for the month. That may account for the slight decrease in average sale price compared to May of last year.”
The average days on the market decreased from 39 to 34 days in the freehold market and from 37 to 36 days in the condominium market.
Year to date, listings are less than one per cent lower than the same January-to-May period a year ago. Sales are two per cent higher and the average sale price is five per cent higher for the period.
