Average house prices and the number of sales dropped in Aurora last month, as the town’s real estate market continued its slow summer.
The average price of houses sold in Aurora was down from $1,420,307 in July to $1,360,986 in August. That’s lower than the average price for this time last year, which sat at $1,462,134 in August 2023.
There was also another drop in sales month-to-month, going from 69 in July across all housing types to 59 in August. That’s lower than the 68 sales made in August 2023, and another month-to-month decline, with 83 houses sold in June.
Jeffrey Graves, a sales representative with Royal LePage Your Community Realty, said summers are usually slow historically, adding “the uncertainty” of interest rates and cost of living is “putting a lot of buyers on the sideline.”
But Graves said the summer months can provide “opportunities” for buyers to get favourable sale conditions, like home inspections and financing conditions.
“It is a good opportunity for buyers for that sense, where they’re maybe not going to be in the multiple offer situation that they were for two straight years in the pandemic times,” he said. “I always tell buyers that the summer months are a great time to find opportunities.”
Across all housing types there was a decline in the number of new listings month-to-month, dropping from 189 in July to 136 in August. June saw 187 new listings.
But August’s figure of 136 was higher than the same period last year, when there were 121 new listings.
Graves said there has been a flurry of new listings early in September, and the market remains well supplied.
This past month did see a slight uptick in the number of active listings. In July, there were 235 active listings versus 238 active listings on the market in August.
That’s almost double the number of active listings there were in August 2023, when there were 131 active listings on the market.
The majority of business done in August was for detached homes, with 38 sales completed with an average price of $1,634,982. In July, the average price was higher, sitting at $1,790,483, with 37 sales completed.
“As much as buyer focus is in the headlines, sellers do sit in a good place in Aurora because of the demand to move here,” he said. “There’s great schools, the location to the city is still great, the access to the highway is amazing, it’s a great town, there’s a lot of demand to get into Aurora. So detached homes are still selling.”
Graves said while demand is high for detached homes, getting qualified advice, marketing a house, and having a realistic price expectation is important.
This past month saw 88 new listings and 155 active listings for detached homes, compared with 111 new listings and 153 active listings in July. Compared with this time last year there’s more supply, with 73 detached homes being added to the market in August 2023, and 79 active listings.
Year-on-year house prices are down more than three per cent, when looking at Aurora’s MLS Home Price Index year-on-year per cent change.
Sales also drop in the GTA
Across the region, home sales were down on a year-over-year basis in August 2024, dropping from 5,251 in August 2023 to 4,975 in August of this year. In July 2024, there were 5,391 sales.
Average prices across the region also dropped slightly year-on-year, going from $1,082,881 in August 2023 to $1,074,425 this past month. In July, average prices were slightly higher, sitting at $1,106,617.
Provincewide, home prices were stable in August compared with July, continuing a trend of broad stability set in February, according to Canadian Real Estate Association figures.
On a year-over-year basis, the average single-family home in the province sold for $955,000 in August, down 5.2 per cent from the average of $1,013,400 they sold for in August of 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.
“Despite some fledgling signs of life to kick off the long-awaited monetary policy easing cycle, Canadian housing market activity still looks to be stuck in the same holding pattern it’s been in all year,” CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart said in a release.
On a province-wide basis, prices for condos in a year-over-year comparison fell 7.5 per cent, and townhouses fell 5.6 per cent.
Sales in the northern Ontario continued to show stronger growth, with single-family homes in Sault Ste. Marie were up 3.7 per cent year-over-year, and those in North Bay up 4.5 per cent.
In the Simcoe County area in August, single-family house prices were down 3.4 per cent, condos were down 7.0 per cent, and townhouses were down 4.6 per cent compared to August of 2023, using seasonally adjusted numbers unadjusted for inflation.
— With files from Patrick Cain
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