Guelph & District Association of REALTORS®

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS® totaled 355 units in March 2024. This was nearly unchanged, up only 0.3% (one sale) from March 2023.

Home sales were 23.9% below the five-year average and 20.2% below the 10-year average for the month of March.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 836 units over the first three months of the year. This was an increase of 6.8% from the same period in 2023.

“Sales activity has been on track for a slow and steady recovery, inching back up since bottoming out last fall,” said Dillon Fraser, President of the Guelph and District Association of REALTORS®. “While cautious buyers continue to wade back in, sellers are jumping into the market and boosting the overall supply of listings. We’ll have to wait a few more months to see how the spring market shapes up and then another few after that to see how buyers respond once the Bank of Canada begins cutting rates, which is anticipated to occur in the beginning of the second half this year.”

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 $809,600 in March 2024, edging down 0.6% compared to March 2023.

The benchmark price for single-family homes was $911,400, down only 0.2% on a year-over-year basis in March. By comparison, the benchmark price for townhouse/row units was $653,200, nearly unchanged, up only 0.4% compared to a year earlier, while the benchmark apartment price was $523,700, unchanged from year-ago levels.

The average price of homes sold in March 2024 was $874,843, a slight reduction of 0.2% from March 2023.

The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $877,328, increasing by 2.6% from the first three months of 2023.

The dollar value of all home sales in March 2024 was $310.6 million, unchanged from the same month in 2023.

The number of new listings was up by 21.7% from March 2023. There were 601 new residential listings in March 2024.

New listings were 10% below the five-year average and 5.4% below the 10-year average for the month of March.

Active residential listings numbered 661 units on the market at the end of March, a substantial increase of 37.7% from the end of March 2023. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of March in more than five years.

Active listings were 46.6% above the five-year average and 23.4% above the 10-year average for the month of March.

Months of inventory numbered 1.9 at the end of March 2024, up from the 1.4 months recorded at the end of March 2023 and above the long-run average of 1.3 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.