The local real estate market showed a slowdown in August with fewer sales, but activity may ramp up this fall.
A report from the Sarnia-Lambton Association of Realtors said 116 homes were sold last month, which is down overall by four per cent year-to-date.
Properties also took longer to sell in August as most homes spent about 21 days on the market, which is the longest stretch seen since 2013.
However, association President Rob Longo said August still proved to be an interesting month as prices remained strong with a good selection of listings.
"Typically when you see your listings increase and an overall supply increase, you tend to see prices decrease," he said. "In this case, we haven't seen that this year in Sarnia. We've seen prices remain fairly strong."
Homes sold in Sarnia-Lambton last month for 98 per cent of their asking price.
The median price of homes sold in August was $470,000, which was down from $510,000 compared to July. The drop in price caused the year-to-date median to decrease slightly from $493,000 to $490,000.
There were 418 active listings in August, which was an increase of 19.8 per cent compared to last year.
Longo anticipates this fall's market will mirror what was seen this past spring, which was busier than the summer months.
"Typically we do see these market fluctuations in the summer, in the spring, and in the fall where things are a little bit slower in July and August. We haven't seen that in the last three years because the market has been so busy but I think this is just a return more to that traditional seasonality of the market," Longo said.
Longo said the current market remains balanced between buyers and sellers.
He said recent news from the Bank of Canada to hold its key interest rate at five per cent may give homebuyers confidence to "jump into the market" now ahead of a potential hike at the end of October.
