217 homes sold through the MLS® System of the Huron Perth Association of REALTORS® in October 2021. That's down 8.4% from last October 2020 but was still the second best level for this month in history.
Home sales were 12.2% above the five-year average and 20.6% above the 10-year average for the month of October. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled a record 2,096 units over the first 10 months of the year. This was a gain of 11.4% from the same period in 2020.
"Home sales have begun trending upward again after quieting down earlier in the summer, with October reaching the second highest level for the month on record," said Kathy Dawson, President of the Huron Perth Association of REALTORS®. "New listings, or lack thereof, are a major contributing factor to the overall shortage of supply, with available listings down to even lower record levels."
The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price was $543,800 in October 2021, a substantial gain of 33.6% compared to October 2020.The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures.
The benchmark price for single-family homes was $547,000, an advance of 34.1% on a year-over-year basis in October. By comparison, the benchmark apartment price was $454,000, an increase of 13.3% from year-ago levels.
The average price of homes sold in October 2021 was $585,411, up by 20.8% from October 2020.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $585,609, a substantial increase of 31.9% from the first 10 months of 2020.
The dollar value of all home sales in October 2021 was $127 million, a sizable gain of 10.6% from the same month in 2020. This was also a new record for the month of October.
The number of new listings saw a substantial decline of 15.2% from October 2020. There were 196 new residential listings in October 2021.
New listings were 5.4% below the five-year average and 8.3% below the 10-year average for the month of October.
Active residential listings numbered 139 units on the market at the end of October, a sharp decrease of 38.8% from the end of October 2020. Active listings haven't been this low in the month of October in more than three decades.
Active listings were 59.1% below the five-year average and 79.5% below the 10-year average for the month of October.
Months of inventory numbered 0.6 at the end of October 2021, down from the 1 months recorded at the end of October 2020 and below the long-run average of 4.1 months 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.