The average home sale price in Greater Saint John has surpassed $300,000 for the first time.
The Saint John Real Estate Board said the average price of homes sold in March was $306,419.
According to figures released by the board, that was nearly 16 per cent higher than one year ago.
The dollar value of all home sales was $75.1 million, which set a new record for the month of March.
Sales also set a new monthly record in March with 245 homes sold, while there were 287 new listings added.
“New listings are slowly starting to return to the market but are still barely keeping pace with sales,” board president Kevin Donovan said in a statement.
“As a result, active listing continued to hover only slightly above the record low set in January.”
There were 357 units on the market at the end of March, almost half of what we saw this time last year. In January, there were just 300 units on the market.
The months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 1.5, down from the long-run average of 10 months for this time of year.
Donovan said a major factor to watch going into the normally busy spring market and beyond is the pace at which interest rates will increase.
Last week, the Bank of Canada announced its key interest rate would be going up by 50 basis points to one per cent.
“Rising interest rates and lack of choice of suitable properties may well staunch the seemingly endless demand we have seen in our region over the past year,” said Donovan.
“Only time will tell how this year’s spring market will play out, but rest assured we are monitoring our local market closely for any definitive indicators that may provide insight into what to expect through the spring and summer months.”
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.
