The London St Thomas Association of REALTORS® released their monthly housing market results to the headline of “May Sales Up Year Over Year” this week. The results reported a strong overall London housing market for May 2012 with an increase of 3.5% over the prior year.
The REALTORS reported 913 homes transactions (sales) up 31 from 882 in 2011, this breaks out as follows:
May Detached Homes:
751 in 2012 vs 702 in 2011
+49 homes or up 7.0%
May Condos:
162 in 2012 vs 162 in 2011
-18 condos or down -10.0%
A strong detached housing market is obscuring a soft condo real estate market in the overall results. For 2012 Condos have been down in 3 (Jan, March & May) of the 5 months so far. However, on a year to date basis we have actually sold 15 (2.2%) more condo units in 2012 than 2011 (685 vs 670). You can see the flatness in the condo market when you compare it to detached homes which are up 218 sales or 7.9% year to date.
The softness in the London condo market really shows up when we look at home selling prices. The REALTORS association reports that for May YTD the average condo price is down 3.4% to $168,852. However, the average price of a detached home since January has increased 5.3% to $257,023.
As always I will have more detailed market information from the London Ontario REALTORS in the next few days.
