Average price crosses $300K for the first time

The number of homes sold through the MLS^® System of the Saint John Real Estate Board totaled 245 units in March 2022. This was an increase of 7.5% from March 2021. This was also a new sales record for the month of March.

Home sales were 32.4% above the five-year average and 57.4% above the 10-year average for the month of March.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 533 units over the first three months of the year. This was a large decline of 12.3% from the same period in 2021.

” MLS® home sales started the 2022 spring market with a bang, posting the highest number of sales on record for any March in history.”

MLS® home sales started the 2021 spring market with a bang, posting the highest number of sales in any March on record. New listings are slowly starting to return to the market but are still barely keeping pace with sales. As a result, active listing continued to hover only slightly above the record low set in January,” said Kevin Donovan, President of the Saint John Real Estate Board. “Both the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark price and the average price pushed to new all-time highs in March. A major factor to watch going into the normally busy spring market and beyond is the pace at which interest rates will increase. 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. 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 MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures. The overall MLS® HPI composite benchmark price was $271,500 in March 2022, increasing by 29.6% compared to March 2021.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $272,700, a gain of 29.7% on a year-over-year basis in March. By comparison, the benchmark apartment price was $174,500, increasing of 22.2% from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in March 2022 was a record $306,419, advancing 15.7% from March 2021.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $292,415, a gain of 26.8% from the first three months of 2021.

The dollar value of all home sales in March 2022 was $75.1 million, up by 24.4% from the same month in 2021. This was also a new record for the month of March.

The number of new listings declined 16.8% from March 2021. There were 287 new residential listings in March 2022.

New listings were 1.8% below the five-year average and 12.4% below the 10-year average for the month of March.

Active residential listings numbered 357 units on the market at the end of March, a large decrease of 45.9% from the end of March 2021. Active listings haven’t been this low in the month of March in more than two decades.

Active listings were 63.2% below the five-year average and 73.3% below the 10-year average for the month of March.

Months of inventory numbered 1.5 at the end of March 2022, down from the 2.9 months recorded at the end of March 2021 and below the long-run average of 10 months for this time of year. 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 Saint John Real Estate Board is an association of approximately 320 REALTORS® that provides services to and sets standards for members. 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 St. John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens County.