Home sales in Grey Bruce fell sharply in May and average prices are starting to retreat slightly from numbers posted earlier in the spring.
The Realtors Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound says 270 homes sold last month, a substantial decline of 26.4 per cent from May 2021. Home sales were 11.5 per cent below the five-year average and 18.8 per cent below the 10-year average for May.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 1,210 units over the first five months of the year — a 16.2 per cent drop from the same period in 2021.
The realtors association’ says the total dollar value of all home sales in May was $193.5-million, down by 20.3 per cent from the same month in 2021.
Average home prices in Grey Bruce in May were just over $716,000, a year-over-year increase of 8.4 per cent. It’s a slight decline, however, from April 2022 when the average price of homes sold in the region topped $744,000.
Home prices are down around 5.7 per cent from two months prior, when RAGBOS reported in March the average was just over $759,000.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $744,803, an increase of 18.4 per cent from the first five months of 2021.
RAGBOS notes the MLS Home Price Index is a more advanced and accurate tool to gauge a neighbourhood’s home price levels and trends. It is based on the value home buyers assign to various housing attributes, which tend to evolve over time.
Using the MLS Home Price Index, the composite benchmark for Grey Bruce was $645,200 in May, an increase of 23.7 per cent over the same month last year. It is also higher than the composite benchmark price of $619,800 the region posted in April.
The benchmark price for single family homes in Grey Bruce was $654,100, a jump of 23.3 per cent year-over-year. For townhouse/row units in April it was $544,500 (a year-over-year increase of 27.4 per cent) and for apartments it was $362,600 (60.4 per cent increase).
More housing supply is on the market as well.
RAGBOS explains active listings at the end of May 2022 are more than 36 per cent higher than last year, with with 709 residential units available for sale. This as 584 new listings hit the market in the month, the largest number of new listings added in May in the past five years.
One metric indicates the pace of Grey Bruce’s housing market is slowing from the blistering pace of 2021. RAGBOS says months of inventory numbered 2.6 at the end of May, up from 1.4 months recorded in the same month last year. This is still below the long-run average of 4.4 months for this time of year. This number indicates how long it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
The Realtors Association of Grey Bruce Owen Sound covers a geographical area that includes Grey and Bruce counties, and part of Wellington County.