Sarnia-area home sales expected to pick up this fall: realtor group

Real estate sales cooled in August, but there have been recent signs activity is picking up, says a Sarnia-Lambton Association of Realtors executive.

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Sales and total dollar volume were both down last month, the association’s August figures show.

“We’re seeing a little bit of a flattering of the market,” said Rob Longo, the association’s past-president, adding, “We’re not down huge numbers.”

Year-to-date sales in August were 1,037, down two per cent from the same month last year. Sales volume of $61.3 million last month was off nearly three per cent from August 2023 and the year-to-date median price was down more than two per cent to $475,000.

Those aren’t “huge swings. . . just an indication of some softening,” Longo said.

The number of local homes listed for sale has been climbing with 600 active listings in August, or about five months of inventory at current sales rates.

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Local homes spent a median 22 days on the market in August.

A home listed “up to the $500,000 mark is usually selling pretty quickly,” Longo said.

There have been some recent multiple offers and “bidding wars” for properties in the $300,000 to $500,000 price range, he said.

“But as you go higher in the price range” activity tends to decrease due to the impact of high interest rates, Longo said.

This month, the Bank of Canada announced another quarter-point cut in its key interest rate, following two similar drops since mid-year.

There has been a “little bit of a lag” in rate cuts’ impact, but “what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks is certainly an uptick in market activity, especially with showings,” Longo said.

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While it will take some time for that activity to be reflected in monthly statistics, “we are thinking that’s going to have a positive impact on the market, for sure,” he said.

The outlook for lending rates in coming months also looks positive, Longo said. “It sounds like we should see rate cuts between now and the end of the year. . . which will obviously help more people get back into the market.”

That’s particularly true for younger and first-time buyers who “might have gotten priced out by the higher interest rates the last couple of years,” he said.

July and August are typically slower months for real estate while many people are away on vacations and busy with children out of school, Longo said.

“Obviously we haven’t seen the same market cycles the last few years with COVID,” he said. “But I think we’re seeing something of a return to that.”

Typically, once school is back, “things start to pick up again,” Longo said.

“We’re hoping to see the pick up in September and October.”

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