Way More Listings and Fewer Sales So Far in 2024

Well, the slow season is behind us.  The four months from November to February are known to be slow in real estate markets right across the country, but here in the North they are even slower.  People, quite understandably, don’t like to move at -30 degrees Celsius.  But that said, we can still learn a few things about where our market is headed by looking back at our slow season and comparing it to past years.

This year, 44 Yellowknife homes sold through the MLS from November 1st to February 29th, which is down by 11% compared to the previous five-year average of 49.4 homes.  So sales are a bit slower this year than we’re generally used to.  Taken on its own, a difference of five or six homes doesn’t tell us much.  But things get a bit more interesting when you look at the number of listings that came onto the market during the same period.  The five year average from 2020 – 2023 was 66 new listings.  Of those five years, last year was the slowest with only 57 new listings.  This year, far more homeowners are testing the market  – we are up a whopping 61% from last year, to 92 new listings.  And as a result of having more new listings and fewer sales, inventory has built up more than we’re used to at this time of year – there were 30 homes on the market in Yellowknife at the end of February.

When our team got together in early January to discuss where we thought the market would be heading this year, the general consensus was that 2024 was going to be a busy year for listings.  There were two main reasons for this prediction.  First, 2023 was a historically slow year, mainly due to rising interest rates.  With the end of the rate-hike cycle seemingly within reach, it seemed likely that 2024 would be busier year.  And secondly, we had the wildfire evacuation in August and September, which interfered with some homeowners’ plans to list their homes for sale, and may also have encouraged others who weren’t previously planning to sell to move to markets with less likelihood of future evacuations.

So it seems like we were right – so far at least.  Buyers have more options right now than they have had in quite a while.  We don’t know if this trend will continue, but for the time being we’re sticking with our previous advice to anyone thinking of selling this year – make sure you get your list price right, because your listing is going to face more competition for buyers than Yellowknife homeowners have been used to in the past.  Pursuing a “moonshot” pricing strategy is always risky, but it would seem to be even less wise this year.

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