Local home sales increase 20 per cent in May

Local spring home sales are increasing but the low supply of properties on the market continues to be a concern.

A total of 234 homes were sold in May, according to the Brantford Regional Real Estate Association, an increase of 20 per cent compared to April 2023.

Brantford and the County of Brant saw sales increase 14.74 per cent and 41.03 per cent respectively.

“We continue to see a positive trend of increased sales,” said David DeDominicis, association president. “However, supply is still and will continue to be, an issue. We saw 477 new listings this months, slightly below the 523 we saw at the same time last year.”

The Brantford-Brant market had 824 listings in total supply at month’s end, compared to 745 in May 2022. Total inventory includes all property types, from residential to commercial.

While the average cost of detached homes saw a slight increase compared to last month, moving from $753,800 to $800,900, there was a 7.95 per cent decrease from 2022.

The average price last month for a detached home in Brantford was $750,200 and $964,000 in Brant County.

The average residential sale price decreased in May from $825,400 to $753,000.

Homes stay on the market for an average of 21 days.

DeDominicis said the close price to list price ratio “has again shrunk significantly,” from 108.5 per cent in May 2022 to 99.4 per cent last month. The close price to list price ratio is the difference between a property’s listed value and what it sells for.

Two months of inventory remain, unchanged from the same time last year. The number of months of inventory is the time it would take to turn over the current housing supply at the current rate of sales activity.

The National Bank of Canada has released its housing affordability report for the first quarter of 2023.

According to the report, Canadian housing affordability posted the largest improvement in 15 quarters in the first quarter of this year.

The mortgage payment on a home as a percentage of income declined 3.2 points, a consecutive pullback following the 2.2-point decrease in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Seasonally adjusted home prices decreased 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

The benchmark mortgage rate (5-year term) fell 14 basis points, while median household income rose 1.3 per cent.

Affordability improved in all 10 markets covered in the report for the first quarter of 2023. On a sliding scale of markets from best improvement to deterioration: Vancouver, Hamilton, Toronto, Victoria, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa-Gatineau, Calgary, Edmonton, and Quebec. This was the first time in 10 quarters that all markets improved.

The Brantford Regional Real Estate Association serves Brantford, Paris, Burford, Mount Pleasant, Oakland, Scotland, St. George and Six Nations.

Locally, the highest average home prices last month were in Brant County’s Ward 5, which includes Onondaga, Mount Pleasant, Cainsville and Oakland ($1.1 million). That was followed by Ward 4, which includes Scotland and Burford ($1 million); Ward 1, which includes St. George ($998,000); Ward 3, which includes Paris ($939,000); Ward 2, which also includes Paris ($612,000)

The highest average sale prices for a home in Brantford last month was in Ward 1 ($821,000), followed by Ward 2 ($759,000), Ward 3 ($722,000), Ward 4 ($694,000), and Ward 5 ($581,000).

The greatest number of homes sold (60) were in the $600,000 to $699,999 range, followed by those in the $700,000 to $799,999 range (44) and $800,000 to $899,999 range (26).