Barrie and District home sales set new all-time record in March 2017

Residential property sales recorded through the MLS® System of the Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® Inc. numbered 705 units in March 2017, an increase of 27.5% from March 2016.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 1,420 units over the first three months of the year, rising 26% from the same period in 2016. This was a record for the period.

Within the City of Barrie, sales activity increased by 21.3% on a year-over-year basis. The City of Barrie saw 388 residential sales in March. A year-over-year increase of 39.7% was recorded in surrounding areas, where sales activity totalled 338 units.

“Monthly home sales in March 2017 cracked 700 for the first time in history,” said Rob Alexander, President of the Barrie & District Association of REALTORS®. “That is perhaps not so surprising since we have been experiencing record level demand for some time now, but it is unprecedented to see this many sales this early in the year. April, May and June may well see even more homes trade hands, provided enough listings come onto the market.”

The year-to-date average price for all homes sold via the association’s MLS® System was $547,847, up 36.9% from 2016.

The year-to-date average price figure for homes sold within the City of Barrie was $520,624. This was an increase of 37.3% compared to the average selling price in 2016.

The year-to-date average price figure for the surrounding areas in 2017 was $578,122, an increase of 34.3% from the average selling price in 2016.

The Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® cautions that over a period, the use of average price information can be useful in establishing trends, but it does not indicate actual prices in widely divergent areas or account for price differentials between geographical areas.

The dollar value of all home sales in March 2017 was $412.4 million, jumping 82.9% from year-ago levels. This was the highest level of any month on record.

New residential listings rose 9.5% from March 2016 to 897 units in March 2017.

Overall supply is currently trending at the lowest levels on record. Active residential listings on the association’s MLS® System numbered 573 units at the end of March 2017, down 37.8% from year-ago levels.

There was a record low 0.8 months of inventory at the end of March 2017, down from 1.7 months a year earlier and the first month to ever dip below one month of inventory. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

Sales of all property types in the Barrie region numbered 752 units in March, rising 31.2% compared to March 2016. The total value of all properties sold in March 2017 was $434.8 million, up 88.3% on a year-over-year basis.

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