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London’s housing market showed signs of recovery in September, with both home sales and average prices trending slightly higher, just-released statistics show.
After recording one of the worst Augusts for home sales in recent history to cap a sluggish summer, 562 homes were sold in September, the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors reported on Wednesday.
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That represents a six per cent increase in home sales compared to September of last year and a virtual tie with 2022, when the Canadian housing market was still adjusting to higher interest rates.
Though still a far cry from the heights seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the local umbrella group for realtors lauded last month’s figures as positive, saying changing economic conditions could help reactivate the local market.
“We saw some positive signs in September’s market as well as our year-to-date activity showing modest increases,” Kathy Amess, LSTAR’s chair, said in a statement. “The Bank of Canada rate decrease in early September was a welcome adjustment that may have been a factor, and we hope this trend continues throughout the fall.”
Canada’s central bank began raising interest rates to rein in runaway inflation in early 2022. After consecutive increases that took the bank’s key lending rate to five per cent, bringing home sales down to some of the lowest levels in the past two decades, the Bank of Canada has now made three consecutive cuts this year, bringing its rate down to 4.25 per cent last month.
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Economists expect more cuts could come this year, with the next interest rate announcement coming on Oct. 23.
The average resale price of a home in September was $641,583, which is less than two per cent higher than at the same time last year, LSTAR reported.
The most expensive properties sold in Middlesex Centre, where the average price was just shy of $1 million. By contrast, the cheapest area in the region was east London, whose average price was $507,207.
In total, the region recorded 1,569 new listings in September, bringing the number of active listings to 3,049, or 19.8 per cent higher than a year ago.
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