lstar home sales on track for a record year

In September 2021, the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS^® (LSTAR) experienced another solid month, with 864 residential transactions recorded via its MLS^® system. "This value, which represents the second-highest number of homes sold in the month of September in LSTAR's jurisdiction since 1978, puts us on track for a record year. In the first nine months of this year, 8,756 homes traded hands in our area, which is an unprecedented total for our September year-to-date figures," said 2021 LSTAR President Jack Lane.

1,057 new listings came on the local market last month, on par with the values seen in the pre-pandemic years. However, at the end of the month, there were only 628 active listings left - the lowest amount of active listings ever seen by LSTAR in September. "These figures show clearly that houses in our area are in very short supply. The shortage is also demonstrated by the very low number of months of inventory - 0.6, which indicates that, at the current sales pace, it would take only a bit over two weeks to liquidate the entire existing housing inventory of LSTAR," explained Lane.

Both benchmark and average sales prices continued to rise last month. In September, the overall average home price for LSTAR was $641,822, while the LSTAR composite MLS^® HPI benchmark price sat at $596,400.

The following table shows how September's average sales prices compare to the benchmark prices. The MLS^® Home Price Index (HPI) benchmark price reflects the value of a "typical home" from a specific area as perceived by local home buyers based on various housing attributes. The average sales price is calculated by adding the sale prices for all the homes sold and dividing that total by the number of transactions. Since monthly averages may be skewed by the type of houses sold in that timeframe, the HPI benchmark price is a more accurate way to gauge price trends.

"Aside from prices, when analyzing the market activity in LSTAR's five main regions, we are also looking at the median number of days on market recorded in each region. This number reveals how many days it usually takes to sell a home in a certain area. Except for Elgin, this number was between 7 and 8 days," Lane added.

The single-family home remains on top of the local buyers' preferences, with 648 sales in September. "Yet, it is worth mentioning that, so far, both condo townhouses and apartments had their best year ever, with 1,087 and 812 units respectively exchanging hands year-to-date," Lane noted.

The table below shows the September benchmark prices for all housing types in LSTAR’s jurisdiction and how they stack up against the values from a year ago.

"Despite all the surges we witnessed in the HPI benchmark prices and average sales prices, homes in LSTAR's jurisdiction remain relatively affordable when compared to houses from some other major Ontario and Canadian centres," Lane emphasized.

The following chart is based on data taken from the CREA National Price Map for August 2021.

According to a research report^[2], a total of $73,250 in ancillary expenditures is generated by the average housing transaction in Ontario over a period of three years from the date of purchase. "In other words, our September home sales could potentially bring more than $63 million to the local economy between now and 2024," Lane concluded.

[1] Area displaying average price; all other areas displaying MLS^® Home Price Index benchmark prices. The benchmark price reflects the value of a “typical home” as assigned by buyers in a certain area based on various housing attributes.

[2]Economic Impacts of MLS^® Systems Home Sales and Purchases in Canada and the Provinces, Altus Group, 2019