Home sales dropping compared to a year ago

Local home sales saw a more than 30 per cent decline in April compared to the same time last year.

According to the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington, 1,185 sales were processed last month, which is a 32.4 per cent decrease from April 2017 and 21.7 per cent fewer than the 10-year average for the month.

The association’s CEO says those numbers, which include Hamilton, Burlington and Grimsby, shouldn’t shock anyone.

“It’s no surprise sales were down from last April, when we saw a record in that month,” George O’Neill said in a news release.

This is the fourth straight month that local real estate sales have tumbled. Compare that to 2017, when each of the first four months of the year had record sales and there were relatively few listings on the market.

April 2017 showed the first “glimpse of a turnaround,” O’Neill previously told The Spectator.

“It was after that point we began to see higher than average new listings and lower than average sales,” he said.

This April, all property listings were 10.5 per cent lower than April 2017 and 5.2 per cent lower than the 10-year average.

The average sale price for residential properties saw a 10.4 per cent drop — from $609,192 in April 2017 to $545,670 in April 2018.

For condos, the average sale price remained relatively stable, but saw a slight decrease from $415,651 last April to $413,340 this April.

The median price of freehold properties dropped by 8.4 per cent compared to last April while the median price for condominiums decreased by 2.1 per cent.

The average number of days on the market for freehold properties rose to 26 days last month from 14 days in April 2017.

In the condo market, that number jumped to 29 days from 15 days.

“In general, there is more time to view and compare properties than last year at this time,” O’Neill said in the release.

Last April, Ontario’s Liberal government announced stabilizing measures that included taxes on vacant properties and a nonresident speculation tax.

Further cooling pressure from the Ottawa included a financial stress test for buyers implemented Jan. 1 for federally-regulated lenders.