A record month for home sales in October.
London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® (LSTAR) announced a record 906 homes* were sold in October, up 11.9% over the same month last year. The number of home resales in October mark the best monthly total for October, since LSTAR began tracking data in 1978.
"It was a very strong October, with home resales high above the 10-year-average," said Jeff Nethercott, 2018 LSTAR President. "One of the trends we saw in October was a healthy increase in the number of new listings to the marketplace. October had 1,171 new listings, up 38.1% compared to October 2017. Average sales price continues to make steady gains as well all across the region."
Making the biggest gain was London East, where the average sales price was $311,954, up 25.5% from 2017 and up 62.7% compared to five years ago. London South (which includes data from the west side of the city) also had some robust gains, with an average sales price of $396,019 up 19.9% from 2017 and up 63.4% compared to five years ago.
Meanwhile, London North saw an average sales price of $447,036 up 10.7% from last October and up 46.0% compared to five years ago.
"Although inventory (what is called active listings) has seen a record low in 2018, October actually had a slight gain," Nethercott said. "Last month, there were 1,553 active listings in LSTAR’s jurisdiction, up 3.0% from October 2017. The sales-to-new listings ratio was 77.4%, which the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says represents conditions in the marketplace that favour sellers (a ratio between 40% and 60% is generally consistent with a balanced market). Of the major geographic centres, London East had the highest sales-to-new listings ratio, at 81.4%."
