Home Sales In Southern N.B. On Par In December

Real estate demand returned to pre-pandemic levels across much of southern New Brunswick in December.

But the president of the Saint John Real Estate Board said it is still too early to say what this year will bring.

Figures released by the board this week show 112 homes were sold in the final month of 2022.

That was down more than 37 per cent compared to the previous year, but only slightly lower than the long-term average.

“As expected, the seasonal holiday slowdown impacted the number of properties changing hands during the month of December,” board president Kevin Donovan said in a news release.

“On the bright side, sales totals were right around what we would expect to see for this time of year.”

The same good news cannot be said for the number of new listings that were added in December.

Only 88 new homes came onto the market, which Donovan said was well below the historical average.

“This was not entirely unexpected as there is usually a pullback in the number of homes available heading into a new year, but it has been nearly 20 years since there were less than 90 new listings in the month of December,” he said.

The low number of new listings forced overall inventory down to its lowest level since February.

According to the board, there were 363 units on the market at the end of December. Active listings have not been this low in the month of December 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 3.2, up from 2.2 months recorded a year earlier but down from the long-run average of 11.2 months.

The average price of homes sold in 2022 was $292,222, up more than 15 per cent from the previous year.

As for what residents in the region can expect over the coming months, Donovan said it is too early to say.

“With at least one more interest rate hike likely in the near term, it is difficult to forecast where the market will head in early 2023,” he said.

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.