Sarnia-area housing sales dipped in June

Home sales in the Sarnia area dropped slightly in June following the Bank of Canada’s first interest rate cut since March 2020.

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The Sarnia-Lambton Association of Realtors said there were 147 residential sales locally in June, down from 164 the month before.

That followed the bank’s decision in June to lower its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.75.

“I don’t know if people are kind of waiting to see if maybe there’s going to be more interest rates drops,” said association president Jeremy Guerette. “It probably wasn’t exactly what I was going to expect for June.”

Rising prices and limited supply of homes created a seller’s market during the early years of the pandemic until concerns about inflation led the Bank of Canada to begin raising its interest rate.

Home sales cooled but the local real estate market had recently been experiencing slow and steady growth, until last month’s small decline.

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“I was looking at the other cities around the province and it looks like similar things are happening all over,” with listings “up a little bit” and sales “down a little bit,” Guerette said.

“We weren’t alone,” he said.

While the 226 new local listings in June were down from May, the number of active listings last month remained higher.

June’s average home price of $542,623 was down about one per cent from the previous month, but that isn’t a significant change considering the average price climbed a similar amount in May, Guerette said.

“Overall, we’re in a better place than we were last year,” when the Sarnia area was experiencing a buyer’s market and prices were “on the decline,” he said.

Even with last month’s decline in sales, the Sarnia area remained in a “balanced market” in June, Guerette said. “I think that’s a positive.”

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Homes were on the market for a median of 22 days in June, the same as in May, and locally it was estimated there was a nearly four-month supply of listings last month. That was up slightly from May.

“That’s a positive for buyers,” Guerette said. “There’s more selection out there.”

Guerette said he will be watching to see what the Bank of Canada does on July 24 when it is next expected to indicate whether or not to change its key interest rate.

“A little bit of interest rate relief would, maybe, improve things,” he said.

The year-to-date value of local residential sales totaled $415.1 million in June, which was down four per cent from the same month in 2023.

But Guerette said association members remain optimistic.

“We’ve kind of had a tough market for the last few years but it seems to be balancing out and I think there’s optimism it might pick up a little bit the next couple of years,” he said.

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@ObserverPaulM

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