Local home sales drop 11 per cent in 2018

By Blair Adams

The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors said home sales declined 11.1 per cent last year.

Just over 5,800 homes were sold through the Multiple Listing System in 2018.

But prices were up 3.4 per cent compared to 2017. The average price was over $483,000.

The increase was around five per cent for detached homes, with the average price around $575,000.

At 12 per cent, the biggest price increase was in the apartment style condominium market. The average price was almost $305,000.

Meantime, just 263 homes were sold in December, which was a 13.2 per decline compared to December 2017.

“The combination of rising interest rates and the mortgage stress test definitely took some steam out of the market relative to what we saw in the previous two years,” KWAR President, Brian Santos, said in a release.

“These types of impediments are most impactful on first-time as well as other buyers entering the housing market.” he added.

Santos also said 2018 continued to be a seller's market.

It took an average of 24 days to sell a home last year, compared to 19 days in 2017.

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