May home sales in the Huron Perth area plummeted by over one-fifth year over year.
The number of homes sold through the MLS System of the Huron Perth Association of Realtors totaled 182 units in May 2024. Home sales were 9.5 per cent below the five-year average and 12.5 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of May.
“Sales activity showed promising signs earlier in the year with a brief resurgence in February but have remained tepid since then, dropping to a five-year low for the month of May,” said Teresa Ondrejicka, President of the Huron Perth Association of Realtors.
The number of new listings saw a minor increase of 2.6 per cent or ten listings from May 2023. There were 388 new residential listings in May 2024. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of May in a decade. New listings were 19.5 per cent above the five-year average and 20.9 per cent above the ten-year average for the month of May. Active residential listings numbered 732 units on the market at the end of May, a jump of 39.2 per cent from the end of May 2023.
“New listings continue their strong upward trajectory but we’ve noticed that overall inventories are no longer accelerating, which may suggest that more unsold listings are not being renewed," said Ondrejicka. "It may be the case that past sellers are now adopting the same wait-and-see approach that many would-be buyers have taken, in which case we are hoping to see more movement either this month or next when the Bank of Canada begins to lower interest rates and brings the tide of sidelined buyers back to the market.”
The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark price was $569,800 in May 2024, up only 0.8 per cent compared to May 2023. The dollar value of all home sales in May 2024 was $112.2 million, down sharply by 26.4 per cent from the same month in 2023.
