Home prices holding steady, inventory selling ‘at a good rate’ in Sarnia area

The Sarnia-area real estate market continued to show signs of a return to normalcy in May after wild years during the pandemic when prices climbed and listings were scarce.

The number of active home listings remains strong with 345 homes on the market in May and more than 1,000 listings since January, said Rob Longo, president of the Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board.

Median home prices in the Sarnia area have been “holding steady” recently, in the range of $485,000 to $500,000, and “we just continue to see more listings coming on board,” he said.

Active listings in May locally were up more than 80 per cent, compared to the same month in 2022, according to the board.

May’s median home price was $505,000, which is nearly the same as it was during the same month in 2022.

“Things are still fairly busy,” Longo said.

“One of the main indicators of a strong market that we look at is the average sale price ratio.”

Local homes in May were selling for more than 99 per cent of their listing price, the board said.

That “signals a strong market, even though we have significantly more homes for sale than we did last year or the previous year,” Longo said.

The housing market soared early in the pandemic with few homes listed for sale and demand high. Smaller markets such as Sarnia also saw more buyers from the Toronto area and elsewhere seeking lower prices, larger homes and quieter communities as more people were working from home.

The market peaked early in 2022 and leveled off when interest rates climbed as the Bank of Canada battled rising inflation.

Interest rates have leveled off in Canada but there have been “mixed signals” recently about what’s to come, Longo said.

“We weren’t expecting any further raises (in interest rates), but now they’re saying we could have a chance of a raise this week,” he said.

“What we’ve seen from buyers and sellers in the market place is” they are “comfortable” with current interest rates, he said.

“The uncertainty comes in” when the Bank of Canada “is unclear about their direction about rates and that’s what kind of creates turbulence with buyers,” Longo said.

The Sarnia-area market had more than two months of supply of home listings as of May, the board said.

“Typically, anything we see under three months is still what we consider a seller’s market,” Longo said.

“Homes are selling at quite a good rate.”

The median number of days homes are on the market, year-to-date, was 18 locally in May, the board said.

That number has been trending down slightly, Longo said.

“Things that are nice and are priced properly and marketed properly, are selling.”

As of May, year-to-date real estate sales in the Sarnia area reached a total volume of $332.8 million, which is down nearly 14 per cent from the same point in 2022.

“We’re going to have a very normal, typical year,” Longo said.

“It’s going to be a little bit lower than the previous two, because I think those were exceptional years.”

Instead, this year’s local market has been “picking up where we left off” in 2019 before the pandemic, he said.

“The first half has been very strong this year,” Longo said. “We’re expecting the second half to be very much the same.”