Real estate market hits triple play in August: MLS® sales, listings and dollar volume are up

The Winnipeg real estate market didn’t let up in August with the Multiple Listing Service®’s year-long record-setting performance continuing.

By the first week of August, the Winnipeg Real Estate Board reported that MLS® dollar volume activity hit $1 billion for the year, the shortest time in which this level was ever reached. Also, a dollar volume of $169 million and 1,293 unit sales  took MLS® to new monthly highs for August.

“August, in baseball vernacular, is our triple  play where new listings, sales and dollar volume are all well out ahead of the last five years,” said Ruthe Penner, president of the WREB.

“You could also say we hit a home run in August with the milestone $1-billion level reached in record time, and it being followed up so impressively by another $153-million worth of MLS® sales activity.

Penner said a significant jump in new listings hopefully will begin to address the tight resale housing supply.

However, she cautioned against being too optimistic because of the rapid conversion of listings to sales in August.

August MLS® listings were actually up 17 per cent when compared to the same month last year.

Last month’s MLS® sales were up 16 per cent from August 2004’s 1,118 units and dollar volume rose 31 per cent from the $129.5 million recorded during the same month last year.

By the end of August, year-to-date sales are up six per cent to 8.649 units and dollar volume rose 21 per cent to $1.15 billion when compared to the same period in 2004. 

Penner noted that condominium sales for August were outstanding compared to the same month last year, reaching 116 sales, a 41 per cent increase over August 2004. 

She said vacant lot sales were also up significantly, though much of the sales in this category were in the municipalities outside Winnipeg.

Over 50 per cent of residential-detached sales this year have sold at or above the MLS® list price.

The $130,000 to $159,999 price range dominated residential-detached sales in August, accounting for 21 per cent of the month’s total. 

The highest price for a home sale last month was $730,000.

For the second month in a row, sales under $100,000 represented only 30 per cent of the total residential-detached sales market.

The average number of days on the market for a listing in August was 24, three days slower than July 2005 and one day faster than August last year.

The average days on the market for a condo were 18, one day quicker than August 2004.