January stats show housing market continuing its winning ways

The Multiple Listing Service® is off to a great start in 2006, according to statistics released by the Winnipeg Real Estate Board.

The real estate market in January outperformed the same month last year, recording an eight per cent increase in MLS® sales, a dollar volume increase of 25 per cent and a new listing hike of 31 per cent.

“While it is still too early to say we are in for a repeat performance in 2006, it is apparent from the January MLS® results that we have started the same way we finished 2005,” said WREB president Walter Boni.

“What is most encouraging to me is seeing how our listings came up over last year. And, that is our best hope of moving toward a more balanced market where supply of new MLS® listings can start catching up with demand,” Boni added.

In January, there were 544 unit sales through MLS®, an increase from last year’s 505 units. 

Dollar volume hit $77 million, up 25 per cent from January last year, setting a new record for the month.

Due to the continuation of favourable   market conditions, Boni is cautiously optimistic 2006 will be another good year for the close to 1,300 members of the WREB.

He said he is being cautious because of the hectic pace in the marketplace over the last three years, making it difficult to duplicate previous record-setting  results.

But, Boni did add that “annual MLS® sales worth $1 billion are here to stay.”

Last year, MLS® dollar value hit  $1.62 billion, the highest total in the board’s history.

“We won’t see a market slowdown,” said Boni. “But, certainly there are now signs of a robust market.”

The highest priced home sold in January was for $1.275 million.

Residential-detached sales in January were most active in the three price ranges between $100,000 and $200,000, accounting for 52 per cent of all sales. All three price ranges were close in percentage of sales, although at 18 per cent, the price range between $100,000 and $129,999 had the highest total.

The average days for an MLS® listing on the market for January was 24, three days off December’s pace and one day quicker than January 2004.