The summer market continues stronger than the summer market in the last 6 years with rising sales,

falling inventory and prices firming up moving solidly into a Seller’s market. It is the right time to get your

home sold. Looking at the early September month-to-date numbers, the strong summer market could

continue into a strong fall market with sales up about 70% over September 2013 month-to-date.

Sales - The total sales for the 12 months ending August 2014 rose to 967, up 33% from the 12 months

ending August 2013 and the highest volume of sales in the last 7 years since 2007.

 

Inventory - The average monthly inventory of single family homes dropped down 9% to 584 for the last

12 months ending in August 2014, the lowest average inventory we have seen in the last 6 years.

Inventory has not been this low since 2008 just before the start of the recession triggered by the US

banking crisis.

Prices - Average median prices continue to rise. At $342,446, average median prices for the last 12

months ending in August 2014 rose 3% over average median prices for the 12 months ending in August

2013. This increase is for average median prices across the board and is largely due to the fact that

prices on higher end homes have been reduced so much (some as much as 25%) that sales are now

starting to recover. This is causing the illusion that prices are increasing in all home categories and that is

definitely not true.

 

For instance, right now some price ranges in some neighbourhoods are starting to rise slightly but other

price ranges have just stabilized or are still dropping slightly. Therefore, overall average price in any given

marketplace cannot accurately predict what is happening. I have found that using an HPI (Home Price

Index) works best. This HPI considers all the sales of a typical house in a certain area and compares

them to the same type of houses sold in the previous years. We find when we do an HPI that house

prices are doing different things in different areas and in different price ranges. I would be happy to do an

HPI evaluation on any property you have. Simply give me a call or send me an email.

 

Absorption Rate

 

The rate at which our inventory is being absorbed by sales continues to rise. The average absorption rate

of 13.85% over the 12 month period ending August 2014, is now the highest in the last 7 years. At the end

of August 2014, there was 6 months of inventory available on the market, up slightly from 5 last month.

This is still considered a balanced market trending towards favouring Sellers over Buyers and putting

more upward pressure on prices as inventory tightens.

 

From these numbers, it looks like we can expect the market to continue to rise as we continue in the

busiest summer season we have seen in 7 years. Sales for the first week of September 2014 continue to

show improvement with a 70% increase over the same time period in September 2013.

The market over the next 6 to 12 months will be characterized by continued increasing sales and lower

inventory moving more rapidly towards a market that now favours Sellers with more competition from

Buyers and higher prices. Prices will continue to rise as consumer confidence gathers momentum and

brings with it more Buyers.

 

If you have any questions about the market, please feel free to contact me at any time. You can go to my

stats page for more information with graphs and full detailed data.