Home sales ‘sluggish’ in July with fewer options for buyers

It was a slow month for home sales in Waterloo Region.

Cornerstone Association of Realtors is with its monthly look at housing stats here locally.

In July, home sales dropped 12.2 per cent month-over-month, and dipped 10 per cent compared to July last year.

It was trend seen in the majority of the region’s seven municipalities, with only North Dumfries seeing a very slight uptick in sales.

Kitchener saw the largest year-over-year decline in properties exchanging hands, with a 16 per cent drop in home sales.

One of the factors? A lack of choice for homebuyers.

“At 3.9 months, Waterloo Region had the lowest months of supply across our market areas,” said Cornerstone CEO Bill Duce.

Compared to last year, new listings were down just over 14 per cent. That being said, Duce noted there is still good news.

“Inventory remained well above the 10-year July average of 1.92 months. This means buyers had more choice than is typical for this time of year, even as new listings moderated.”

When it comes to what the limited buyers were paying, the average price of a home, across all property types, dropped about 4 per cent compared to last July, which rang in around $706,000.

The average sale price by municipality is shown in the graphs below.

A full break down can be found in Cornerstone’s full report.

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