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Local real estate activity continues to defy expectations, according to the Saint John Real Estate Board.
President Corey Breau said 239 homes were sold last month, surpassing the previous March record by more than 50 sales.
Breau said they also saw a notable uptick in new listings, with 354 homes being added to the inventory.
“It is great to see the amount of new listings outpace the amount of sales and start to see inventory return,” Breau said in a phone interview.
The increase in new listings, which Breau said is expected this time of year, helped to halt a month-over-month decline in inventory levels that started last July.
But overall inventory, which numbered 570 at the end of March, remains at its lowest level for this time of year in more than two decades.
Months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 2.4 at the end of March, well below the long-run average of 11.3 months for this time of year.
Figures provided by the board show the average home sale price hit a record high of $265,095 last month. That pushed the year-to-date average price up to $232,167.
The dollar value of all home sales in March also hit a record $63.4 million, an increase of nearly 88 per cent from the same month in 2020.
“We’re seeing a lot of higher-priced homes sell,” said Breau. “We’re seeing homes close to the million-dollar price tag and we just haven’t seen sales like that in our region over the past years.”
As for whether the record-high prices are impacting home sales, Breau said he has not seen any indication at this point.
“So far, we’re seeing sales continue so we people not buy homes because of the prices,” he said. “We’ll see as the prices continue to climb, but as of right now, we’re still selling homes.”
The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen and includes the counties of Saint John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens.
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