Home Sales in Port Hope and the surrounding area totaled 42 units in January 2023 according to the Norhumberland Hills Association of REALTORS®. The Northumberland Hills Association of REALTORS® covers the municipalities of Port Hope and Cobourg stretching from Lake Ontario across the 401 going north as far as Rice Lake and east as far as the township of Cramahe, including the Village of Colbourne) and as far west as the eastern limits of Highway 115 in Clarington (formerly the Township of Clarke).
With only 42 units sold, this was a significant decline of 34.4% as compared to January 2022. Further, home sales as of January 2023 are 38.4% below the five-year average and 34.4% below the 10-year average for the month of January. See the chart below which shows the sales activity in the region for January from 2014 to January 2023.
Erin Brown, President of the Northumberland Hills Association of REALTORS®, stated, “Home sales are still trending well below average and will likely continue to do so for the better part of this year as buyers continue to adjust to a rapid series of interest rate increases and sellers keep trying to figure out a pricing strategy that works for them.” She further stated “Although low by historical standards, the amount of supply on the market has posted a modest increase from last year and now stands better positioned to supply potential buyers with more options from which to choose. Given that the market is within balanced territory and benchmark prices are still in decline this will offer up some opportunities to sidelined buyers who have been mulling a return to the housing market.”
Another important metric is the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) which tracks price trends more accurately than using average or median price metrics. For January 2023 the overall MLS® HPI composite benchmark price was $673,100 which was 15.5% lower than January 2022.
Benchmark pricing for single-family homes was $680,100, 15.9% lower on a year-over-year basis for January. Townhouse/row unit benchmark pricing was $567,100, down 9.1% compared to January 2022.
The average price of homes sold in January 2022, though, was $702,630, a very sharp decrease of 37.4% versus January 2022. The dollar value of all home sales in the region for January 2023 was $29.5 million, a decline of 58.9% as compared to January a year ago. Refer to the chart below.
New listings, however, saw a positive gain of 15.1% with 14 new listings as compared to January 2022. There were 107 new residential listings in January 2023 (increasing from 93 in December). New listings were 5.5% above the five-year average for January, and 1.4% above the 10-year average for the month of January but because these are not particularly large numbers, there’s obviously not much delta here relative to the long term average. The chart below gives you a clear visual picture of the new listings trend (remember this is looking only at January of each year from 2014 to 2023).
Active Residential Listings In Northumberland Hills
The number of active residential listings was 154 available for sale at the end of January 2023. That’s more than double the level of last year, up 165.5% relative to the end of January 2022. This is also 26.2% above the five year average but 18.5% below the 10-year average for the month of January. See the chart below which shows the active January listings year over year since 2014. The chart shows the 10-year average line.
Months of Housing Inventory In Northumberland Hills
Months of Inventory, or MOI for short, is the relationship of sales pace to the number of properties currently on the market if no additional homes were added to supply. It’s calculated by determining the number of homes sold per month and dividing that by they total number of properties for sale on the last day of the month.
What it tells you is the number of months it would take to sell the current inventory of homes assuming the current rate of sales activity.
In the Northumberland Hills region, MOI was 3.7 at the end of January, compared to 0.9 months at the end of January 2022, and the long-run average of 3.3. Refer to the chart below which shows the MOI for January from 2014 through 2023.
