109
WINTER
2016
|
MARKET
watch
ESCARPMENT
®
real estate
Oneof thebenefits
ofmyposition in theSouthernGeorgian
Bay real estate industry is that Iget tocommunicate regularlywithsome
excellent REALTORS
®
whohavebeen in thebusiness fordecades, and
who seem tohavedeepperspective into just about everything that has
ever happened — or could happen — in the local housingmarket. In
short, they’ve seen it all.
Andso,when they tellmehow2015wasnotonlyanover-the-topsales
year, but alsoonewith elements that are unprecedented in their long
careers, I can reallybegin toappreciatehowunique theyear actually
was.
For starters, real estate activity across
southernGeorgian Bay during2015
was incredibly robust,witheachof the
twelve months setting a new MLS
®
monthly sales record, andwithMLS
®
annual salesshattering thepreviousan-
nual record set in2014—all despitea
verysignificant reduction in thenumber
of homes listed for sale.
MLS
®
sales for 2015, as reportedby
the SouthernGeorgian Bay Associa-
tionof REALTORS
®
for themarketswe
serve, totalled $804.9million, an in-
creaseof 21%over2014. Individual
unit sales were up 15% with 2,386
properties sold in2015, ascompared
to2,080 in2014. Generally,wecon-
tinued to seegrowing strength in the upper-endprice segments of our
market, which explains why the increase in dollar sales of 21% out-
paced theunit sales increaseof 15%. Sales over $500,000wereup
26% in2015,witha totalof327propertiessoldcompared to260sold
in2014. Of particular note,MLS
®
unit salesbetween$600,000and
$700,000 increased36% (with80 sales reported). MLS
®
sales be-
tween$800,000and$900,000 sawan increaseof39% (with32 re-
ported), while sales over $1million (with48 reported) were up23%
over2014.And thegoodnews is,weexpect this trend tocontinue.
With regard to single family homes, sales across the regionwere up
11% in2015with1,742MLS
®
sales reported.MLS
®
sales of condo-
miniums, at 474units, alsoenjoyedahealthy7% increaseover2014.
Vacant land sales,whichhadbeen languishing in recent years, sawa
big resurgence in2015aswell,withMLS
®
unitsup30% from2014.
Turningnow to the region’smunicipalities, themajoritysawayear-over-
year increase in single family home sales.Most notablewasWasaga
Beach,whereMLS
®
sales totalled568homes,an increaseof28% from
2014. Thiswas followedby the BlueMountains, theMunicipality of
Meaford and Collingwood, which saw
2015MLS
®
unit sales increases of 17%,
12%and5% respectively over 2014. By
comparison, 2015 MLS
®
single family
homesales inClearviewTownshipand the
MunicipalityofGreyHighlandsdecreased
5%and14% respectively from2014.
All that said, one of themore atypical as-
pectsof themarket involved the fact that the
15%overall sales increasewe sawduring
2015camedespitea15%decrease in the
number of new listings fromoneyearago.
During2015, a total of 4,347newMLS
®
listingscame tomarket compared to5,129
in 2014. To put this in perspective, that
means55%of theproperties listed for sale
onour localMLS
®
system sold in2015,as
compared to40% in2014 (andas also compared to the30%-40%
year-in-year-out average).Aswell, closelyconnectedwith the55%an-
nual sales-to-listings ratiowas2015’s stratospheric sales-to-expired-list-
ings ratioof 141.4%, whichmeans that 41.4%more listings sold than
expired. That compareswith2014’smoreusual sales-to-expired-listings
ratioof86.1%,whichmeans that13.1%more listingsexpired thansold.
According tomy long-timeREALTOR
®
colleagues, the55% sales-to-list-
ings ratioand141.4%sales-to-expired-listings ratioare totallyunprece-
dented in their careers. In fact, they say that not since the Free Trade
Agreement was passed in1988 havemore homes sold than expired
duringanygivenyear in theSouthernGeorgianBayarea.
And so, when they tell me how
2015was not only an over-the-top
sales year, but also onewith
elements that are unprecedented
in their long careers, I can really
begin to appreciate how unique
the year actuallywas.
DesmondvonTeichman
Broker of Record, Owner, Royal LePage
LocationsNorthRealty, Brokerage
By
