Local Realtors blame slow condo sales for a sluggish month of real estate sales in Waterloo Region in May.
A total of 742 homes changed hands last month, which is 8.2 per cent below what was a slow May in 2023, according to the Waterloo Region Association of Realtors.
The number of sales in May 2024 represents a 20 per cent dip over the previous 10 Mays.
“May saw a dip in the number of sales across all categories, with condo apartments experiencing the largest drop,” WRAR president Christal Moura stated. “The Condo market also had the greatest supply level, posing a challenge for sellers, especially for units with one or fewer bedrooms, where the current inventory level exceeds buyer demand.”
To illustrate the point, Realtors say there were only 82 condos sold last month, which is 34.4 per cent over the same month a year earlier, while detached homes were nearly on pace with May 2023.
“This spring, we are witnessing a significant increase in the availability of apartment-style condos, with a record high number of units on the market,” Moura said.
“At the same time, we are observing a shift in demand away from smaller-sized condo units, potentially influenced by the higher interest rates impacting investor market activity for this property type.”
The dip in the number of sales did not have much of an effect on housing prices as the average sales figure came in at $818,507, which is just .3 per cent below May 2023 and 2.3 per cent above April.
After seeing a flood of new homes come onto the market in April, that trend continued in May as 1,644 were listed, which is up 28.9 per cent year over year and 15.8 per cent over the previous 10-year average.
That number left a large number of listings on the market at the end of May as the Realtors say there were 1,741 active listings when the calendar turned over to June. That is a whopping 95.1 per cent over May 2023 and more than 400 over the previous 10-year average of 1,361.
This means there were 3.1 months’ supply of inventory at the end of May, a number that shows how long it would take to sell all the homes off at the current pace of sales.
That said, WRAR says it took around 16 days for a home to change, hands which is pretty close to the same as last May, when it was 14 days.