Home Sales On The Rise In Saint John

August was another banner month for home sales, according to the Saint John Real Estate Board.

A total of 246 homes were sold last month — an increase of 11 per cent compared to last August.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 1,550 units over the first eight months of the year.

“With just four months left to go this year, 2019 will almost certainly be the best year for local home sales in more than a decade, and it is actually still in the running to be the best year ever,” said Sherry Sheldrick, president of the real estate board.

The average price of homes sold so far this year is $182,115, down slightly from the same period last year.

But Sheldrick expects prices will soon start to creep in the upward direction.

“Strong sales continue to draw down on overall supply, which has been falling steadily for the last three years and tightening the market,” she said.

“With the number of months of inventory now under six for the first time in 11 years, the balance of supply and demand is likely getting to the kind of level where we’ll start to see home prices in the region start to move higher.”

The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The total dollar value of all home sales in August was $47.1 million — a new record for the month of August and the second-highest level of any month in history after last July.