The weather might have been warm last month but home sales cooled in the London area.
The London St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR) said 770 homes sold in March -- 623 detached homes and 147 condos. Sales were down 4.8% from the same month last year.
"The March figures are nothing to get excited about; they are also nothing to be concerned about. Slow and steady wins the race," association president Barb Whitney said.
In the first quarter of 2012, 1,854 homes sold, a 3.9% increase over last year.
Highrise residential development is about to help transform the northern gateway into London.
Planning committee and city council are expected Tuesday to OK twin 14-storey towers just west of Richmond St. and Sunningdale Rd.
The project, by Tricar Developments, builders of the two 28-storey Renaissance Towers downtown, will be the second highrise the firm has built along the Richmond North corridor.
"I see this as the coming thing," Coun. Bud Polhill, chair of planning committee, said Monday.
The new president of the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR) is expecting a relatively smooth ride in the local real estate market in 2012.
"It's definitely a balanced market. I don't see a real estate bubble of any kind in the near future," said Barbara Whitney, a sales representative with Century 21 First Canadian.
She's the first female to head the association since Nancy McCann in 1998.
New to north London, Ballymote Woods really does have it all. It combines rural peace with city convenience.
Located north of Sunningdale and east of Adelaide Street, Ballymote is near the city's new YMCA, new elementary and secondary schools, shopping and a library. It is perfect for growing families looking to move up to a larger home or those desiring a higher-end first house to make their forever home.
London area housing starts tumbled last month, due to a drop in the volatile multi-family sector.
But single family starts, a more reliable market indicator, were in good shape.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said there were 95 housing starts in January compared to 243 in the same month last year.
The wide gap was caused by the start of the 193-unit condo tower by Tricar Construction in Jan. 2011. In contrast there were no apartment units last month.
Technology has changed the way we communicate, the way we travel and the speed and efficiency of our work. Some of us that have lived our adult lives through the technology transformation of the last 30 years might (jokingly) argue that the change hasn't always been for the better, but in the home-building industry, change is definitely a good thing.
Despite a slow start in the spring, sales for 2011 nearly matched the previous year.
After a slow start in the spring, home sales in the London-St. Thomas market rebounded in 2011 and nearly matched the previous year.
The London-St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR) reported Tuesday that 8,048 homes were sold in 2011, about 1% fewer than 2010.
The year got off to a slow start when sales in the spring were lagging 15 to 20% behind 2010.
London got some good news on the housing front with new home starts up in the city and area, the Canada Mortgage Housing Corp. (CMHC) reported Thursday.
Builders poured foundations for 130 homes compared to 105 in November, up 24%, with numbers boosted by townhouse construction, said Margot Stevenson, senior market analyst for CMHC.
But the market for single, detached homes, the largest economic indicator, is still in a slump, she added.
Demand for London and St. Thomas real estate is forecast to remain stable while prices move up in 2012, according to a national housing market report released by Re/Max real estate Tuesday.
The real estate company is predicting 8,100 residential units will be sold in London and St. Thomas, the same as in 2011 and 2010.
The average price is expected to increase 2% to $238,000.
Sales are forecast to fall by 3% in Kitchener-Waterloo and increase by 1% in Windsor and Hamilton areas.
A Farm Credit Canada report shows Canadian farmland prices accelerating upward in many markets, especially in Southwestern Ontario — the nation’s richest farm belt — in part because people are trying to buy rural homes that can’t be divided from the land.
“It is a lifestyle consideration,” said Dale Litt, senior appraiser with FCC.
The report found that in the first six months of this year farmland in Ontario jumped in value by 6.6%.
In the previous two six-month periods Ontario farmland increased by 2.4% and 4.3%.