The Oakville-Milton market appears to be potentially in transition. While January 2025 saw fewer sales and a significant build-up in inventory, the 2024 fourth-quarter performance showed robust activity.
Residential Market Q4 2024 Trends
In the fourth quarter of 2024, residential activity experienced strong growth compared to the same period in 2023.
Sales
A total of 1,563 residential units were sold during Q4 2024, representing a 31.5% increase. Separating the data by housing type reveals that single detached homes increased by 29%, townhouse and row units by 31.8%, and apartment units by an impressive 40.9%. On an annual basis, total residential property sales in 2024 reached 7,021 units, up from 6,699 units in 2023—a 4.8% year-over-year increase.
Source: CREA
Prices
In terms of pricing, the median price for single detached homes fell slightly by 2.5% from $1,380,000 to $1,345,000. Townhouse or row units experienced a median price increase of 4.5%, rising from $880,000 to $920,000. Conversely, the apartment median price experienced a slight decline of 1.5%, decreasing from $632,500 to $623,000.
Source: CREA
January 2025 Trends
Sales
MLS® home sales experienced a dip in January, with numbers falling beneath historical norms, below both the five-year and 10-year averages for the month, underscoring a notable cooling in sales activity. A total of 267 homes were sold, marking a significant decline of 29.4% compared to January 2024.
Prices
Although the volume of new listings surged past last year’s total and even saw a slight increase from the end of December, prices remained largely steady.
The benchmark price for single-family homes climbed slightly by 1.4% to $1,498,200, while townhouse or row units recorded a 3.9% gain, reaching $896,700. In contrast, the benchmark apartment price experienced a slight decline of 3.7%, settling at $630,000. The average price of homes sold in January 2025 was $1,197,685, reflecting a modest decrease of 1.9% from January 2024.
Listings and Inventory
January saw a substantial increase in the number of new residential listings, which jumped by 46% from the same month in the previous year to reach 978 new properties, which was the highest January figure in a decade. This influx resulted in active residential listings numbering 1,655 at the end of January, a 37.3% increase from January 2024 and a level not seen in over ten years for this time of year.
The market’s inventory level was reflected in the months of inventory metric, which rose to 6.2 months from 3.2 months in January 2024. This metric, which indicates the number of months it would take to sell the current inventory at the prevailing rate of sales, now stands significantly above the long-run average of 3.1 months.
