Sarnia-Lambton real estate sales soared to another monthly record in August, nearing the $90 million mark.
Real Estate Board President Donna Mathewson said they hit $86.7 million, a 57 per cent increase or $31.5 million, over August 2019.
"We had a lot of sales, over 15 actually, in that $750,000 plus range," said Mathewson. "Obviously, that always drives up our average sale price a little bit, it also drives up our volume."
She said buyers continue to make up for lost time after the pandemic restricted sales in the spring.
"Everyone is back on track now, our market is strong, interest rates are low, which is also helping drive the market and I think people are just thinking that they want to stay home, they want to invest in their home, they want to invest in real estate, because they're not going to be travelling anytime soon either."
While volume sales in each of the past three months were over $80 million, yearly sales are on pace with other years.
"Year-to-date we're 10 per cent above what we were last year," said Mathewson. "But a normal year, if we hadn't have had COVID, and we had stayed steady all through the year, it wouldn't have been surprising to see a five to ten percent increase over last year. We do increase year-over-year and have been for the last several years."
In August, 207 homes sold, up 27 per cent from the same month last year, and there were 219 listings, which was actually down from 233 in August 2019.
The average sale price so far this year is $390,526.