A record fourth quarter in 2016 has continued into one of the busiest first quarters to kick off the 2017 real estate market in Swift Current.
Nineteen-year real estate veteran Kelsey Adam of Century 21 Accord Realty has released figures compiled by the MLS® system of the local real estate board. Those figures show 67 residential properties sold from January to the end of March this year, which ties it for second best on record.
“When you consider we tied with 2007, which set the highest yearly sales, we are off to a good start to the year,” said Adam. “Now things can change as the year goes by,” he added, “but with the strong end to 2016, it is exciting to see our market continuing to experience solid activity.”
While February held its own, it was a huge increase in January sales and a 100 per cent increase in March sales that really bolstered the numbers. January MLS® sales were 17 compared with seven in the previous year. February had 16 sales, down slightly from 18 in 2016. March home sales hit 34, which is double the previous year’s total of 17.
The average sale price is stronger than last year at this time, up 8.0 per cent from $262,000 in 2016 to $283,000 this year according to statistics provided by the MLS® service provider. The median sales price is down 7.0 per cent year over year, from $260,000 last year to $240,000 in 2017, meaning that there was the same amount of sales above that number than below that number.
Meanwhile, the average days on market to sell a home is still hovering at about 84, which is on par for last March.
“While year-to-date days on the market is slightly over 90, which is up substantially from an average year which normally ranges from 65 to 75, it is nice to see that things are selling,” Adam stated. “We did have a higher inventory over the past year, which can lead to longer selling times, but we continue to hover at an average sale price of about 95 per cent of the asking price.”
