The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of REALTORS® Inc. totaled 172 units in February 2021. This was up by 5.5% (nine sales) from February 2020. Residential sales haven’t hit this level in the month of February in five years.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 278 units over the first two months of the year. This was an increase of 10.3% from the same period in 2020.
“Home sales didn’t rise to stratospheric heights and break records in February, but they did remain at historically strong levels,” said Jon Maxwell, President of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of REALTORS® Inc. “A slight uptick in new listings coming onto the market was a very welcome sight, although given the current breakneck pace of demand didn’t do much in the way of lifting overall inventories from their record lows. Barring a sudden and unexpected flood of listings hitting the market as we approach the busy spring buying season, we anticipate supply constraints to continue driving double-digit price growth.”
The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures. The overall MLS® HPI composite/single-family benchmark price was $540,500, a gain of 27.1% compared to February 2020.
In February 2021 the average price of homes sold was a record $662,226, a big gain of 33.1% from February 2020.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $647,296, a substantial gain of 32.3% from the first two months of 2020.
The dollar value of all home sales in February 2021 was $113.9 million, a sharp increase of 40.4% from the same month in 2020. This was also a new record for the month of February.
There were 228 new residential listings in February 2021, up by 8.1% from February 2020. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of February in five years.
There were 139 active residential listings on the market at the end of February. This was a substantial decline of 57.6% from the end of February 2020. Active listings haven’t been this low in the month of February in more than two decades.
Months of inventory numbered 0.8 at the end of February 2021, down from the 2 months recorded at the end of February 2020 and below the long-run average of 3.8 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.