The month of March showed us that the Orangeville real estate market is shifting from being an insanely active seller's market to being more of a normal seller's market. The Bank of Canada increased its policy interest rate for the first time since 2018 and with that the prime lending rate at the Canadian banks increased, and there was a slow down in buying activity in the real estate market. Let’s take a look at the stats.
Month of March
In March there were 139 homes listed for sale, a 4.79% decrease from the 146 homes listed for sale in March of last year.
74 homes sold in the month of March, a 35.09% decrease from the 114 sales in the same month last year.
With 74 sales and 139 new listings, the Sales to New Listing Ratio for the month of March was 53.24%. This is indicative of the shift that we have seen in the Orangeville real estate market in March and is an indicator of more balance in the market between buyers and sellers.
The Average Sales Price in Orangeville for the month of March was $1,016,006, a 25.66% increase from the same month last year but is a decrease from the average sales prices in January and February.
The Sales Price to List Price Ratio was 112% in March indicating that homes are still selling for over their list price but this figure has declined from where it was at the start of the year.
The average Days on Market in the month of March was 6 days this is in line with the same month in 2021 and is also similar to what we had experienced earlier in 2022.
At the end of the month, there were 56 active listings available in Orangeville this is a 40.00% increase from the 40 homes available for sale at the end of March last year.
With 56 homes available for sale and 74 sales during the month of March, this indicates there is currently 0.8 months of inventory. This remains a very low number in a historical sense but does represent an increase in inventory over what we had seen earlier in 2022.
Year-to-Date March 2022 – The First Quarter
2022 started the year very hot and the Orangeville real estate market has seen a bit of a shift in the last two weeks of March. Overall, the stats for the first quarter are very strong.
In the first quarter of 2022, there were 260 homes listed for sale this is a 1.52% decrease from the 264 homes listed for sale in the same period last year.
There have been 168 sales in the first quarter of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021 where there were 208 sales this is a 19.23% decrease in sales activity.
Based on the 168 sales and the 260 homes listed for sale there is a Sales to New Listings Ratio of 64.62%. This ratio is still in seller's market territory but is becoming more balanced than is was earlier this year.
The Average Sales Price year-to-date is $1,028,701 which is higher than the average in the month of March indicating a slight slow down in price appreciation on a year-over-year basis but the average remains 30.50% higher than the first quarter last year where the average sales price was $788,294.
The average Sales Price to List Price Ratio through the first quarter was 115% which is higher than the same period last year.
The Average Days on Market in the first quarter of 2022 was 6 days which remains extremely low and in line with what this figure has been for much of the last year.
What Does All This Mean?
The Orangeville real estate market has been undergoing some changes since the middle of March and while this isn’t completely showing up in the statistics there are some signs of softening demand. From the growing inventory levels and the slower sales volumes, it looks like we are entering a phase of the market that is more similar to before the pandemic. Orangeville remains in a seller's market but buyers are less forgiving toward homes that are overpriced or are in poorer condition.
If you have been looking for an opportunity to purchase a home this may be a great opportunity. Many buyers have decided to take a wait-and-see approach in this market shift and there are homes that are selling for less than similar homes did over the last two months. Also, sellers are becoming more accommodating to buyers including conditions in offers and negotiating on terms of the sale as there is generally less competition for homes.
If you have been thinking of taking advantage of the hot real estate market by selling your home, the good news is that home prices are still higher than they were in the summer/fall of last year but the market has seen a shift. If you are selling in this market you need to make sure that your home is presented in the best possible way and it is priced correctly to ensure that you are able to get the interest of buyers and maximize your return on selling. You may also need a little more patience than earlier this year as I expect the average days on market to begin to creep higher, and the list price to sales price ratio to go lower when we see the April stats.
At this point, I do not see the signs of doom and gloom in the Orangeville real estate market. It is a market that is experiencing a shift and buyers and sellers are trying to recalibrate to what is happening as they make plans for their moves. If you would like to discuss what is going on in the Orangeville real estate market please follow the link below and you can book a call with me.
https://calendly.com/brianrooneyrealestate
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