HAPPY NEW YEAR!! The Halifax Real Estate Blog Presents the 2018 Market Year in Review, by Jeremiah Wallace of ViewPoint Realty

Come along as we explore some of the market variables that certainly made 2018 a year to remember!

As far as the average sales numbers go, you won't be clutching the edge of your seat in anticipation of how it reported last year, but it's still interesting. Usually, this is a statistic that has become an "ol faithful" year to year, reporting marginal gain annually despite the market environment, and 2018 was no exception to this trend. As you can see from the chart above, there was a few months that battled back and forth with 2017, but 2018 won the match overall. Last year capped out with the highest selling month value in April at a few dollars shy of $314,000, but fell short of besting 2017, which reported over $317,000 in the peak month of May. 

As you can see from the above chart, the race to the top of the sales month is quite consistent year over year as well. Of course, some years do better than others, but the overall trend stays the same. The peak sales hump generally runs from mid/late April to late July/mid August, and is usually met with an inventory level that absorbs the fluctuation with ease. I say usually, but 2018 was a bit different, however I don't wasn't to get too far ahead of myself. Last year faired really well in the sales ring, and I believe it would have done that much better if there was inventory to meet the activity. Still, 2018 beat several of the tracked years overall, and reported stronger than 2017, which was also a good sales year. Peak sales capped out just over 700 units in May, but was again bested by 2017 which reported a mere 4 units more overall. 

This chart should come as no surprise to all the buyers of 2018, or the readers of my blog, but inventory overall ghosted us last year. With the solid sales report (above) reporting higher than the last several years, the lack of new property additions coupled with the surge in buyer activity made the purchasing landscape difficult to navigate. 2018 started with the lowest overall inventory in over a decade, and continued that trend for the rest of the year. So, as I alluded to in the sales report, the inventory additions were not enough to keep up with the demand. It begs the question of what will transpire in this new year should the activity stay the same.

The 2018 Halifax real estate market year was a year that started off as a balanced market in many areas, but quickly turned to a sellers market in several key neighbourhoods. Just to put it into perspective how drastically the market has changed in the last few years, we went from the highest inventory ever reported on the blog in August of 2015, to the lowest inventory level in in over a decade in a short 3 year span...pretty amazing. 2019 should prove to be another interesting year to follow, with the big question being; boom or bust? Make sure to check in to find out, starting with the weekly market rant returning on Thursday. Thanks for stopping by! 

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