Home sales slow on P.E.I. but prices remain steady, latest numbers show

The latest real estate numbers show the resale housing market on P.E.I. continues to cool.

The number of sales recorded in the first four months of the year is down 30 per cent compared to the same time in 2022.

The cost of a home has stayed steady, though, and experts say the province is approaching a more balanced market than it's seen over the past few years. 

"Certainly I think interest rates played a role in that," said James Marjerrison, president of the P.E.I. Real Estate Association. 

"I think there's a lot of people kind of waiting on the sidelines to see what the Bank of Canada would do with interest rates.

"P.E.I.'s prices have held strong so that's been really good. Even though sales activity is down, prices are still holding steady."

The association uses the benchmark price — a prediction for a typical sales price of a single-family home — as its measure. It was $339,000 last month, almost the same as in April of last year.

Realtors say it doesn't look like 2023 will bring the same big price jumps seen during 2022. 

Steve Yoston, a broker and co-owner at Exit Realty, says the dropping number of sales means we're getting closer to what a normal market looks like on P.E.I. 

"When I look at these numbers, they're very similar to the pre-pandemic numbers, which is just what we're used to. I really believe the last three years are just an anomaly, for sure...

"As an industry, we were basically run off our feet for three years. I think everybody was a little out of sorts because we haven't really seen those big increases both in dollar volume and volume of sales."