Real Estate Blog | Page #3

In October 2022, the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR) saw 975 new listings and 504 home sales. While October’s new listings were on par with the average value recorded for the month of October throughout the last decade, the monthly home sales were at their lowest point in the last ten years.

“This year’s successive increases in interest rates put a big dent in the local home sales activity and made the year-over-year price values plunge. However, it’s not all bad news: LSTAR’s sales-to-new listings ratio increased from 42.4% in September to 51.7% in October, which indicates a more balanced market. Moreover, the overall average home price in the London-St. Thomas region was a bit higher in October than during…

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The local housing market continued to cool off in September, with 497 homes exchanging hands via the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®(LSTAR). Housing supply made a healthy gain from 2.7 months of inventory in August to 3.4 months of inventory in September, showing more signs of market stabilization.

"An additional interest rate hike, the fifth one so far in 2022, continues to impact home sales activity," said 2022 LSTAR President Randy Pawlowski. "We are experiencing increased inventory levels, indicating a more balanced marketplace. For historical perspective, the 3.4 months of inventory is the highest recorded for the month of September, since September 2015."

The average home sales price and composite MLS® Home…

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The number of homes sold in the jurisdiction of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR) fell by 34.8% in August from the same month last year, but saw an increase over the previous month, which indicates a soft landing of the local real estate market. More specifically, 607 residential transactions were recorded last month by LSTAR’s MLS® System - 324 less than a year ago, but up by 93 units from July.

“The softness seen over the last few months in the local real estate market was, undoubtedly, caused by the continuous rise in the mortgage interest rates, which has translated into higher borrowing costs,” said 2022 LSTAR President Randy Pawlowski. “However, the sales-to-new listings ratio, which reflects the share of new listings out…

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The local housing market continued to cool off in July, with 514 homes exchanging hands via the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR). The housing supply made a steady gain from 2.8 months of inventory in June to 3.6 months of inventory in July, signaling movement toward a more balanced market. 

"With rising interest rates, July saw home sales activity continue to slow down," said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President. "Inventory has increased, showing more signs of a balanced market. The 3.6 months of inventory in July is in line with the months of inventory recorded during the same month in 2014 and 2015." 

While LSTAR's composite MLS® Home Price Index Benchmark Price of $624,400 was down 3.7% from June, this…

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1,727 new residential listings and 663 home sales were recorded in June 2022 in the London-St. Thomas area via the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR).  The local housing supply increased from only 1.7 months of inventory in May to 2.8 months of inventory in June. 

"While the number of new listings is the highest ever recorded by LSTAR in the month of June, the number of June home sales is at its lowest point in the last ten years," said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President. "Our local market is cooling off rapidly, but home prices don't follow suit as fast," he added. 

LSTAR's composite MLS® Home Price Index Benchmark Price was down 7.8% from May, decreasing from $703,300 in May to $648,500 last month.…

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In May 2022, 1,835 new residential listings were posted on the MLS® System of the London and St Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR), more than in any previous May in the Association’s history. The local housing supply increased from only 1.2 months of inventory in April to 1.7 months of inventory in May.

Sales, on the other hand, were more on par with those from the former decade, with only 844 homes exchanging hands last month in LSTAR’s jurisdiction.

“Even if in May the sales-to-new listings ratio dropped to 46%, a figure that, typically, indicates a market that tends to favour home buyers, benchmark and average prices saw only modest month-over-month declines,” said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President. “Compared to last year’s figures, both…

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In April 2022, 877 homes traded hands in the London-St. Thomas area and 1,069 new property listings were posted on the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR). The local housing supply bounced up to 1.2 months of inventory in April from only 0.6 months in March.

“These figures suggest a soft landing of the local real estate market: the April home sales are on par with the ten-year average and last month's sales-to-new listings ratio of 54.5% signals that we’re trending towards a more balanced market,” said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President.

Within the same time frame, LSTAR's composite Home Price Index Benchmark Price saw a 4.5% month-over-month decline – from $774,200 in March to $739,700 in April. A similar…

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1,049 homes were sold in March 2022 in the London-St. Thomas area via LSTAR’s MLS® System. During the same time frame, 1,544 listings came on the local market, which makes last month the March with the highest number of listings in the history of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®. 

“Despite the record number of listings, our inventory – the number of active listings at month end – saw just a slight increase from last month, creeping up from 0.5 months to only 0.6,” said Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President. “The sales-to-new-listings ratio for the entire jurisdiction of LSTAR was 67.9%, much lower than a year ago, but still indicating a Sellers’ market,” he continued. “The latest interest rate hike by the Bank of Canada may have put a…

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813 homes traded hands in February 2022 in the jurisdiction of the London and St Thomas Association of REALTORS®, only 8 units less than in the second month of 2021, which was LSTAR’s best February for home sales ever.

“Even though last month our residential transactions fell short by a few units from reaching a new peak, February 2022 succeeded to set quite a few new records,” says Randy Pawlowski, 2022 LSTAR President. “This was the February with the highest number of new listings in the history of LSTAR, but also the one with the lowest housing inventory and the lowermost number of active listings at month-end,” he continued.

1,021 new listings came on the market this month, but only 408 were still active as of February 28. The number of…

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529 home sales were recorded by the London and St Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR) via its MLS® system in the first month of 2022, thus marking the Association’s second best January for home sales ever. During the same month, the local real estate market saw 669 new listings, out of which 286 were still active at month end. 

“Despite the fact that slightly more new listings came on the market, there were only 0.5 months of inventory available at the end of January,” said 2022 LSTAR President Randy Pawlowski. “In other words, at the current pace of sales, the entire listing inventory of LSTAR could be liquidated in just two weeks, something that we have never seen before,” he explained. 

The extraordinary buyers’ demand combined with the…

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