Hamilton home sales jumped in March as average prices stayed over $1-million mark

Home sales in the Hamilton-Burlington area are on pace to eclipse 15,000 for the second-consecutive year after a red-hot March.

The Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported Tuesday there were 1,637 residential properties sold last month - a 33 per cent increase over February.

The overall number of residential transactions in March was the second-highest recorded in 10 years," said RAHB president Lou Piriano in a release.

Indeed, home sales in the area reached a 10-month high in March. The last time there were this many closings was in June 2021 at 1,881.

The sizzling sellers' market came as average home prices fell to $1,073,342, a slight drop of 2.7 per cent from February. Albeit a welcome sight for buyers navigating a price-heavy landscape, Piriano warned to take the dip with a grain of salt: home prices have remained above the $1-million mark for three straight months.

Across the RAHB market area, there was a slight dip in the residential average sale price, although it did remain over the $1-million mark," he said. We do not see the dip in the average sale price after one month of change as a trend or permanent circumstance."

Properties in the area continue to come off the shelves at a rate comparable to the frenzy over toilet paper in the early days of COVID-19, a trend fuelled by high demand and low supply.

In Hamilton, residential properties sold at an average of under nine days last month, down from nearly 12 days in March 2021.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com