July MLS® sales set new dollar volume record

July not only  set a new dollar volume sales record, but the month edged out May this year for total sales which is a rare occurrence, according to WinnipegREALTORS®.

“We have now had two really solid back-to-back months of MLS® sales and dollar volume activity,” said WinnipegREALTORS® president Deborah Goodfellow.

“The only reason we’re not talking about big percentage increases similar to other Canadian markets is that we never experienced the same significant sales declines that other markets did last year.

“While there is more news reported of the Canadian economy recovering from a recession,” she added, “Manitoba has been very resilient throughout this period and has withstood any serious impact from the economic downturn.”

Goodfellow said high consumer confidence and low mortgage interest rates coupled with affordable housing is sustaining a sound local resale housing market.

Low vacancy rates for rental properties, due to an influx of immigrants and people moving back to Winnipeg, is causing more people to buy homes, she added.

Goodfellow said the $276 in July MLS® sales — a three per cent increase from the same month last year — ensures WinnipegREALTORS® will experience its third consecutive year of $2-billion-plus sales activity. Year-to-date, there has been a total of $1.5-billion in MLS® sales.

For residential-detached sales, the most active price range was between $150,000 and $199,999, accounting for 24 per cent of the month’s total. It was followed by the $200,000 to $249,000 price range with 22 per cent of all sales.

The highest price for a residential-detached home in July was $767,000, while the lowest price was $10,900.

Forty-two per cent of condominium sales during July were between $100,000 and $149,000. The highest-priced condo sold for $460,000, while the lowest sold for $32,000.

Average days on the market for a residential-detached house in July was 30, which was five days more than the same month last year. For condos, the average sale occurred within 33 days, or two weeks more than the fast pace set in May 2008.

July MLS® sales were down just two per cent to 1,373 when compared to the 1,407 unit sales in July 2008.

Nearly one-out-of-three sales were above the MLS® list price in July, while another 11 per cent sold at the list price.

Goodfellow said the number of residential-detached and condo MLS® listings are now similar to the same period in 2008, which had not been the case earlier this year.

The number of listings entered on MLS® this year by the end of July is just shy of the 11,448 entries made last year.