While the number of homes sold in Kitchener-Waterloo decreased in March, prices continued to climb, according to the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors (KWAR).
A total of 511 homes were sold in the Kitchener-Waterloo market last month, down 5.7 per cent from a year earlier and well below the average for the previous 10 years.
READ MORE: Home sales stall in February in Kitchener-Waterloo
KWAR president Brian Santos says that some of this sales decline is to be blamed on a lack of availability.
“The activity on detached homes continues to be strong,” Santos said in a statement. “But the average number of sales in March was brought down by fewer semi-detached, townhomes and condos.
“I think this can be credited to the lack of inventory and options buyers have in those segments of the market.”
There were 797 homes listed in the Kitchener-Waterloo market in March, a year-over-year decrease of 4.8 per cent.
READ MORE: Home sales on the rise in Kitchener-Waterloo in January
There were 325 detached homes sold in March (down 3.2 per cent), a stark contrast to the 116 townhouses (down 14.7 per cent), 45 condos (down 11.8 per cent) and 25 semis (down 37.5 per cent) that changed hands.
While home sales fell a healthy number, the prices still jumped 3.4 per cent over a year earlier to an average of $505,855.
This jump was not fuelled by detached homes, though, as they saw an increase of just 0.8 per cent ($585,668) over a year earlier.
The price of purchasing a condo continued to climb, rising 7.5 per cent year over year to $320,857. Semis also saw a significant jump to $422,360, rising 6.4 per cent. Townhomes saw a decrease in average prices as they fell by one per cent to $372,003.