Market Updates

The following information is compiled from the Multiple Listing Service of the Muskoka Haliburton Association of Realtors and is provided for information purposes only.  This chart shows the average year over year  comparisons in four property categories, showing the average list price, average sale price, list to sale price ratio, average days on the market and the number of annual sales.

TYPE	YEAR	AV. LIST	AV. SALE	RATIO	AV. DAYS	# OF SALES
Wtft. Cottage	2009	330,913	316,750	96%	75	215
	2008	361,779	343,822	95%	68	180
Lakefront Home	2009	462,267	431,588	93%	76	45
	2008	446,800	425,044	95%	76	36
Residential	2009	181,747	170,659	94%	91	152
	2008	175,188	165,389	94%	83	151
Vacant Lakefront	2009	224,791	206,636	92%	115	36
	2008	233,374	221,542	95%	115	38

One must keep in mind that these figures are guidelines only. Let's look at the first category, waterfront cottages. It indicates the average sale price this year (2009) has dropped from the average of 2008 by $27,072. or by 7.8% and that is true. Also of interest is that the number of sales increased by almost 20%!  However, further analysis within this category by us (not shown here) indicates that of the 215 cottages sales in 2009, 196 of the 215 total were below $500,000.  If you eliminate the sales over $500,000, the average price of a waterfront cottage under $500,000 in 2009 was $283,804 and not the $330,913 overall average as shown above!  This indicates the problem with using  averages in price comparisons and that when evaluating a property there are many factors to be considered. This is just one area where the experience of The Stamp Team will assist you.