Home sales in Greater Saint John continue to shatter new monthly records, according to the local real estate board.
Figures show 311 homes were sold last month, which set a new July record and was the third-highest single-month total in history.
Corey Breau, president of the Saint John Real Estate Board, said the figure is down slightly from the all-time record of 340 homes the month before.
“July and August can be slower months of real estate. People are enjoying the warm weather and with restrictions loosening, they are probably enjoying vacation and doing other things,” Breau said in a phone interview.
The number of newly listed properties remained solidly above 300, with a total of 343 homes being added to the inventory in July.
But the strong demand continued to deteriorate overall inventory, driving down the number of active listings to just slightly above the lowest level on record.
There were 662 units on the market at the end of July and the months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 2.1.
Homes sold for an average $245,242 last month, which was down from a record $271,160 in June but up 21 per cent year-over-year.
“We saw some higher-priced homes sell in June versus July, so that would affect the monthly average price, but year-to-date we’re still on par around $250,000,” said Breau.
Looking ahead to the next few months, Breau said there are no signs of the red-hot real estate market cooling down any time soon.
“I think we’re going to see a very strong fall market. I think we’re going to see sales continue to climb and prices will go up a bit and hopefully, we see lots of new listings,” he said.
The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen and includes the counties of Saint John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens.
