Monday, May 29, 2023
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Growing Demand and Low Inventory Fuel Home Price Gains
In April 2023, 964 new properties came on the market and 723 homes
exchanged hands via the MLS® System of the London and St. Thomas Association of
REALTORS® (LSTAR).
"Since the beginning of 2023 we've been noticing steady
month-over-month increases in the number of home sales and prices, which
indicate that the property demand and the housing supply issue are still there.
Both of these are also demonstrated by the sales-to-new-listings ratio, which
sky-rocketed in April, and by the dwindling housing inventory," said 2023
LSTAR President Adam Miller.
The overall sales-to-new listings ratio for the entire London-St.
Thomas area climbed from 63.5% in March to 75% in April, while the inventory
plunged from 2 months in March to only 1.8 in April.
"Out of the five main regions of LSTAR, the city of St. Thomas
was the one with the lowest number of properties available for sale, with only
one month of housing inventory in April," Miller emphasized.
"In their turn, the low inventory and the growing housing
demand are putting upward pressure on the local average and MLS® HPI Benchmark
Prices," Miller added.
In April 2023, in the jurisdiction of LSTAR, the average home
price and the composite MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Benchmark Price were lower
compared to the same month in the previous year, by 13.6% and 17.1% respectively.
However, both these figures were higher than those seen in the previous months.
The average home price for LSTAR in April 2023 was $664,149, while the
composite MLS® HPI Benchmark Price was $607,200.