Southern New Brunswick continues to see the pace of home sales slow, according to the local real estate board.
Figures from the Saint John Real Estate Board show a total of 204 homes changed hands in October.
That was down nearly 15 per cent from this time last year, but slightly above the 10-year average.
Board president Kevin Donovan said despite the decrease, it was still the third-highest total for any October in history.
“The small decrease in the number of sales could just as well be attributed to the yearly fall seasonal slowdown as it may be due to the decline in demand other parts of the country have recently experienced,” Donovan said in a news release.
On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 2,183 units over the first 10 months of the year, down by 19.4 per cent from the same period last year.
A total of 200 new residential listings were added in October — the lowest number of new listings added during the month in two decades.
The number of active listings on the market fell to 520 at the end of October, according to the board. Numbers have not been this low in October in more than two decades.
The months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 2.5 at the end of October, down from the long-run average of 8.7 months for this time of year.
“Consequently, market conditions have pushed our local market further away from balanced territory back in favour of sellers,” said Donovan.
The average price of homes sold in October was $280,996, edging up 0.6 per cent from the year before.
However, the dollar value of all home sales dropped nearly 29 per cent to $57.3 million.
The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen and includes the counties of Saint John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens.
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