Saint John Region Sees Surge In New Home Listings

Greater Saint John saw a surge in new home listings last month, but high demand continues to push overall inventories to record lows.

The Saint John Real Estate Board said there were 313 new residential listings in October — the highest for the month in more than five years.

Board president Corey Breau said after somewhat quieting down over the later part of the summer, demand has once again picked up.

According to figures from the board, overall home sales totalled 291 units in October, which set a new all-time record for the month.

That is 23.8 per cent above the five-year average and 52 per cent above the 10-year average for the month.

“The strong influx of new listings is a welcome sight, but demand is so strong that overall inventories continue to fall to new record lows,” Breau said in a news release.

Active residential listings dropped to 563 units at the end of October, the lowest level recorded for this time of year in more than two decades.

The months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 1.9.

Officials said the scarcity of listings helped to push the average home sale price to a record $278,992 last month, up 31 per cent from last year.

The dollar value of all home sales in October was $81.2 million, a year-over-year jump of 32.7 per cent.

“It’s going to take a lot more than just one month of strong new listings to begin bringing the market back in the direction of balanced territory,” said Breau.

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.