Collingwood Real Estate Market Update – December 2015

This report summarizes the monthly stats for the Western Region of the Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS® (SGBAR). For clarity, the SGBAR trading area also includes the Eastern Region of Southern Georgian Bay, due to an amalgamation of the Midland Real Estate Board and the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board in 2014. We are now known as Southern Georgian Bay Association of REALTORS®. For this monthly report, our focus remains on the Western Region.

We saw 127 sales in December 2015 which is up 18% from the 108 sales reported in December 2014. The total number of sales for the year is 2386, showing a 15% increase from 2080 sales from the same time last year. The total sales dollar volume for December 2015 is $46,685,516 up 29% from $36,306,059 in December 2014. 

2015 has been a strong year for properties over $1.0M.  There have been 48 properties sold over $1.M which is a 23.1% increase over 2014. Of the 6 properties sold over $1.0M in December 2015, 3 properties were sold for over $1.5M.  Overall property types included waterfront, view properties, century homes and executive custom homes.

In previous reports we have noted that sales in the $500K to $799,999K showed the strongest growth in 2015 over 2014.  That price category ended the year as a close second in growth with 232 sales for the year compared to 177 for 2014, reflecting a 31.1% increase. Leading the way are sales in the $350K to $499,999K price range which showed a 31.4% increase with 460 sales for the year vs 350 for 2014. 

On the listing side of things, overall supply remained low. The number of active MLS® listings at the end of December was 1066 compared to 2288 for December 2014 which is a 47% reduction. There were 170 new listings in December 2015 vs 192 for December 2014. The total number of listings for the year was 4347 vs 5129 for 2014, which represents a decline of 15%.

The monthly Sales to Listing Ratio for December 2015 is 74.71% which makes a clear statement that we continued to experience a Seller’s Market.  The Sales to Listing Ratio for 2015 is 54.89% up from 40.55% in 2014.

The number of months of inventory is an important measure of the balance between housing supply and demand. It represents the number of months it would take to completely liquidate current inventories at the current rate of sales activity. Based on average monthly number of sales throughout 2015 and listings for December 2015, we currently have 5.3 months of supply. 6 months of supply is considered the benchmark for a balanced market. Less than 6 months of supply favors the Seller because there are fewer choices for the Buyer. More than 6 months favors the Buyer and leads to lower prices.

Expired listings continued to decline.   There were 206 expired listings in December 2015 vs 251 in December 2014, representing an 18% decline.  The total number of expired listings for 2015 was 1687 vs 2415 at the end of 2014, marking a 30.1% decrease in expired listings 2015 over 2014.

As 2015 ended, we can say with all certainty that it has been a strong market for Sellers. Total dollar volume for the year increased month over month throughout the year with a tight supply of listings. And, even though the mild weather conditions in December prevented the ski hills from opening, the Southern Georgian Bay area was bustling and preparing for what is shaping up to be a strong 2016.