Sale of non-waterfront homes in towns surrounding Georgian Bay — including Orillia — are still trending down with a 10 per cent decrease in May 2024 compared to the same month last year.
That's according to the Lakelands Association of Realtors' latest summary of MLS data for the region.
There were 455 non-waterfront homes sold in the Lakelands region in May, which is 13.8 per cent below the five-year average and 22.6 per cent lower than the 10-year average for the month.
Waterfront property sales are also decreasing. There were 137 waterfront homes sold in Lakelands towns last month, which is seven sales less than in May 2023, but 21 per cent below the five-year average and 30 per cent below the 10-year average.
"Much noise has been made regarding the proposed change to the capital gains tax inclusion rate, but looking at the data it doesn’t seem like it’s had an effect on sales in our region as of yet, given that cottage properties were one of the most common recurring examples given of asset sales that would be impacted by the change," Bonnie Looby, president of the Lakelands Association of Realtors, said in a news release.
"With less than a month to go until the proposed changes take effect, we’ll be looking more closely at the June data released next month to see if this trend changes."
In the central portion of Lakelands, which includes Midland, Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Penetanguishene, Ramara, Springwater, Tay and Tiny Township, the median price of a non-waterfront home sold in May 2024 was $675,000, which is up by 1.4 per cent compared to last year. It's the only part of the region that saw growth in median price.
Waterfront sales in the central part of the region also jumped in price by 11.9 per cent to $940,000 for May 2024. There were 23 waterfront sales in the central region in May and 178 non-waterfront sales.
The Lakelands region wraps around Georgian Bay with Collingwood, Clearview, The Blue Mountains, Grey Highlands, Meaford and Wasaga Beach in the western portion of the region, where home sale prices are still the highest compared to the central and northern parts of Lakelands.
In the west, the median price of a non-waterfront home sold in May 2024 was $722,500, down from $725,000 in May 2023. There were 162 non-waterfront sales in the west in May, down 15 per cent from last year.
There were 14 waterfront homes sold in the western part of the region last month, with a median sale price of $785,000.
The home price index, calculated by MLS, shows the composite benchmark price for a home in Lakelands was $715,600 in May 2024, which is 1.9 per cent lower than it was in May last year.
Ontario home prices were stable in May, continuing a trend set in February that ended a five-month fall that began last summer, figures released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on Monday show.
On a year-over-year basis, the average single-family home in the province sold for $951,600 in May, down 3.8 per cent from the average of $989,300 they sold for in May 2023.
The numbers are seasonally adjusted and do not take inflation into account.
Inflation, depending on what measure you choose, is running at between 3.4 and 3.7 per cent.
“May was another sleepy month for housing activity in Canada, although it may prove to be the last of those now that interest rates have moved lower,” CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said in a release.
“The Bank of Canada’s June 5 rate cut may have only been 25 basis points, but the psychological effect for many who have been sitting on the sidelines was no doubt huge. The question now turns to further rate cuts — specifically, how fast, and how far?”
On a provincewide basis, prices for condos in a year-over-year comparison fell 3.4 per cent, and townhouses fell 2.2 per cent.
“The spring housing market usually starts before all the snow has melted, somewhere around the beginning of April, but this year I believe a lot of people were waiting for the Bank of Canada to wave the green flag,” CREA chair James Mabey said in a release.
“That first rate cut is expected to bring some pent-up demand back into the market, and those buyers will find there are more homes to choose from right now than at any other point in almost five years."
In Ontario, sales in the north continued to show much stronger growth than those elsewhere in the province — single-family homes in Sault Ste. Marie were up 6.3 per cent year over year, and those in Sudbury were up 5.7 per cent.
Locally, in May, in the Lakelands real estate area, single-family house prices were up .3 per cent — more or less unchanged — condos were up 3.2 per cent, and townhouses were down 1.4 per cent compared to May 2023, using seasonally adjusted numbers unadjusted for inflation.
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— With files from Patrick Cain
