St. John’s Metro Real Estate Market Update for MARCH 2023
This update is focused on St. John’s Metro, which includes St. John’s, CBS, Mount Pearl, Paradise and Eastern Extension (Torbay, LBMCOC, Bauline, Pouch Cove, Portugal Cove-St. Phillps). Statistics are taken from NLAR’s MLS System and insights are my own.
How is the Market?
The inventory rate is trending down again, after being up a little in January and February. With 6 Months of Inventory, we are in between a Buyers Market and a Balanced Market.
Inventory rate is how long it would take for all the homes on the market to sell if no new homes were listed. Anything above 6 is considered a buyers market and between 4-6 is a balanced market and under 4 is a sellers market.
We are getting very close to the low inventory levels that we saw last year where when we had a 10 month span where we had only 5 months of inventory available. And, even though this would technically be considered a balanced market it feels like a sellers market here in St. John’s because historically we were not used to this low level of inventory.
And there are areas of town where inventory is even lower. So if you are a seller, this spring is shaping up to be a great time to get your house on the market.
There were 1268 Active Listings available in March. However, if you look at the data year over year active listings are down. And, are down about 1000 below March of 5 years ago.
So for all you sellers out there, there is not a lot of competition on the market. And buyers, if you see something you like, know that there are probably a lot of people looking at that same listing. It is more important than ever to work with someone who knows how to write compelling offers.
There were 341 New Residential Listings in March.
This was up from February which is what we expect to see happen in March. There is a big drop in new listings from last March and this is the third month in a row that we saw this number down. This shows that buyers have not been given a lot of new options so far in 2023.
And There were 196 Homes Sold last month.
This is up slightly from February and down year-over-year. So even though there are more new homes listed than sold in March, it’s not still enough to increase the inventory rate. There are a lot of buyers out there waiting for new homes to be listed. If the number of new listings go up we would expect to see the number of homes being sold to increase as well.
How is the Market for Single Family Homes?
The Median Home Price in St. John’s metro for single family homes is $335,000.
The reason I used the median price and not the average is because sometimes the average home price can be skewed by a couple of large sales. The median price is if you took all the homes that sold and lined them up in a row and took the price right in the middle.
This price is up 4.6% from February and up 8.7% compared to last year. The current median price is the same now as it was last August, which had a similar low inventory rate.
So, home prices remain strong and for the Month of March they are higher than we have seen over the past ten years.
The average home is selling in 57 days.
Homes are moving quicker than last month but not as fast as they were at times last year when we saw about 40 days on market. However, if you are a buyer, I would not wait too long to put an offer in on a home. A nice home, in a desirable neighbourhood, that is priced right is selling quickly.
The average list to sale ratio shows how close buyers ended up paying to the price that the house was listed.
In March, the List-to-Sale Ratio was 98.4%, which is very close to what it was last year. So the average buyer is paying very close to full asking price for a house.
Market Update Summary
Home prices are up.
Inventory is still low and and trending back down into a balanced market, which feels more like a sellers market in St. John’s
Buyers haven’t been given much new options thus far in 2023, if you are considering Selling, now is a great time to do so.
How does the market update impact you?
We should talk! Everybody’s situation is a little bit different. If you are looking to buy, sell or invest give me a call, we can take a closer look at your specific area and how the market impacts you.
TEXT ME at 709-770-5565 or CLICK HERE to schedule a meeting.
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