Your Market Update for JANUARY 2023.
This Market Update is focused on Residential Real Estate in 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 prepared from data available to Realtors® in the NLAR (Newfoundland and Labrador Association for Realtors) MLS® System.
Please note, I am not an economist or a mortgage broker but I provide my insights as a Realtor® in this update.
HOW IS THE MARKET?
Starting off, people always ask, what kind of market are we in… are we in a buyers, a sellers market, or a balanced market. How we actually determine this is by looking at the Inventory Rate.
Inventory Rate is how long it would take for all the homes on the market to sell if no new homes were listed.
Right now there are 9 Months of Inventory on the market and above 6 months of inventor is considered a Buyers Market.
In fact, this is the first time in 10 months that we have seen more than 5 months of inventory. So we are moving from a Balanced Market into a Buyers Market.
Note that this data is for ALL St. John’s Metro and there are some areas, such as the east end of St. John’s, where inventory is lower, but overall this is good news for buyers.
There were 1254 Active Listings available in January.
The number of active listings is historically start to trend down in November and then come back up in March. But if you look at the data year-over-year active listings are down. This means that buyers have less options, and sellers have less competition, than they had in previous Januarys.
There were 319 New Listings in January.
It’s not surprising that there is a jump in new listings from December to January. That happens every year. However, we are down quite a few new listings compared to last year and what we typically have available in January.
If I were thinking about selling my home, I would see this as an opportunity because buyers haven’t been given many new options in January.
And, There were 138 Homes Sold in January.
There are traditionally less homes sold in January than December, so it’s not surprising that number is down. We are also down year-over-year but we should keep in mind that there were a lot more homes sold in 2021 and 2022 compared to what we usually see in St. John’s.
How is the Market for Single Family Homes?
The Median Home Price in St. John’s Metro for ingle family homes is $320,000.
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 million dollar 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 down slightly from last month but the year-over-year growth is up 5%. So, home prices are still holding strong and higher than they have been this January compared the past ten years.
The average home is Selling in 51 days.
Last summer, homes were selling in about 40 days. So the market isn’t moving as fast as last summer. But things are moving faster than they were last January and if you look at the past ten years, 51 days is the lowest days on market that we have seen any January.
So if you are a buyer you have a little bit more time to think about your purchase than you would have last summer, but I wouldn’t wait too long to make an offer because things are still selling relatively quickly.
In January, the List-to-Sale ratio was 97.6%. The average List-to-Sale Ratio shows how close buyers ended up paying to the price that the house was listed. So the average buyer was not paying full asking price for a house but about 2.4% under asking.
interest Rates Update
Mortgage rates at the end of January for a 5 Year Fixed mortgage were 4.48%.
This is actually down from 4.99% for a 5 Year Fixed in December from the same lender.
(Rates kindly provided by Darryl Lane at East Coast Mortgage Brokers.)
So, even though the Bank of Canada raised interest rates by 25 bases points in January – which wasn’t great news for anyone who currently has a variable rate mortgage – if you are considering buying a home you should defiantly go meet with your bank or mortgage professional to find out what rate they can offer.
Market Update Summary
- Home prices remain strong.
- Inventory is starting to increase, more houses are being listed than sold, and we are moving into Buyers’s market.
- Homes aren’t selling as quickly as they were last summer but quicker than we typically see in the winter.
How does this all 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.
And, if you enjoyed this blog and are prepping your home for sale, check out my blog on 4 TIPS FOR HOME SELLERS THIS WINTER.
