Making a point — in Point Douglas

Making a point — in Point Douglas

Best first quarter ever for Winnipeg home sales

Winnipeg’s red-hot resale homes market racked up its best March and best first quarter on record this year, according to new Multiple Listing Service (MLS) figures released today.

Winnipeg REALTORS said 1,186 properties were sold last month through its MLS. That was not only a seven-per-cent gain from the 1,110 properties that changed hands in March of last year, but it was the highest March tally in the association’s 108-year history.

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   • Holy pricey house, BatmanIt was also the best March for dollar volume of sales, with $274.9 million worth of transactions. That was a 14-per-cent improvement from a year earlier, when $241.1 million worth of properties were sold.

The high level of activity boosted unit sales for the first three months of 2011 to 2,533 — a 10-per-cent improvement from a year earlier — and the dollar volume of sales to $570.5 million — a 15-per-cent gain. Both those were also new first-quarter records.

"The change in the mortgage amortization period from 35 to 30 years in March may have spurred more activity than we initially had predicted," said WR president Ralph Fyfe. "And with mortgage rates starting to inch up a bit lately, those buyers are looking even smarter now for getting a head start on the spring market."