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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Posh homes fuel resale market

August dollar volume was highest on record

By: Murray McNeill

Posted: 09/7/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Housing, by the numbers

1,290: number of properties sold last month through MLS

1,293: record for August, set in 2005

1,016: number sold in August of last year

$296 million: dollar volume of sales last month

$220 million: dollar volume a year earlier

$169 million: dollar volume in August 2005

1,784: number of new listings last month

1,578: the number in August 2010

13: percentage increase from a year earlier

9,196: number of properties sold in the first eight months of 2011

8,663: number sold during the same period last year

$2.14 billion: dollar volume of sales during first eight months

$1.9 billion: dollar volume during the same period last year

13,551: number of new listings in first eight months of 2011

13,203: number during the same period last year

$200,000 to $250,000: most popular price range in August, with 20 per cent of all sales

$150,000 to $200,000: second most popular, with 19 per cent of sales

-- source: Winnipeg Realtors Association

A run on higher-end -- half a million dollars plus -- properties helped propel Winnipeg's resale homes market to its best August ever in terms of dollar volume of sales.

The Winnipeg Realtors Association said Tuesday that $296 million worth of properties were sold last month through the local Multiple Listing Service.

That easily topped the previous August best of $231.2 million in 2009, and was a 35-per-cent improvement over last August, WR records show.

The local resale-homes market also came within a whisker of setting a new August record for the most properties sold, falling just three shy of the record of 1,293 set in 2005. Last month's tally was also a 27 per cent improvement over August 2010's total of 1,016 properties.

WR president Ralph Fyfe attributed the 76 per cent increase in dollar volumes from August 2005 to August of this year to steadily rising house prices -- double-digit gains in four of the last five years -- together with a growing demand for higher-end homes.

He said five per cent of the properties sold last month -- about 65 -- sold for more than half a million dollars. That included one million-dollar-plus property -- a home on Wellington Crescent -- that went for $1.16 million.

"We're certainly seeing more high-end homes turning over," Fyfe said, adding that six years ago there would have been fewer than two dozen such homes changing hands in any given month.

Although WR officials were expecting another good year for house sales this year, Fyfe said even they are surprised at how good it's been. After eight months, unit sales are running six per cent ahead of last year's pace, the average selling price is up by eight per cent, and the dollar volume is 11 per cent higher.

"I can't help but believe that all the optimism evident in major projects like the new airport, CentrePort, the (human rights) museum, the new football stadium, the return of the Jets... and all of the other exciting developments in our city and province have provided consumers with a confidence that is playing out in the real estate market," he said.

Even the ongoing turmoil in the world's stock markets is helping to fuel the demand for resale homes, he said, because investors realize real estate offers one of the best rates of return.

"What other investment has done as well? Maybe... gold, but you can't live in gold."

And despite growing concerns that the global economy may be sliding back into recession, Fyfe said he thinks the local resale homes market will remain buoyant through the remainder of this year and well into 2012.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2011 B6

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