Home sales in Steinbach this year are running slightly behind last year's pace, but prices are up a bit. Peter Squire of the Multiple Listing Service shares the numbers for July.

"Sales were a little bit down from last July. There were 52 sales in July, 2019, compared to 60 in July 2018. The average price, however, was higher this year. This year it was at $280,000 compared to $277,000 last year."

Squire adds, year-to-date, there have been 265 home sales in Steinbach, eleven fewer than in the first seven months of last year. He notes the number of listings is also

down a bit; 500 this year compared to 545 last year.

Squire is optimistic that home sales will continue to be steady this fall although he notes the first-time buyer market is still being affected by the mortgage stress test that was imposed by the federal government last year.

"We called 2019 a recovery year and we had a record month for our entire market region in May. We fell back a little bit in June and then we came back strong in July. So I'm still optimistic, but we're definitely going to see a year that's not going to equal our record years of 2016 and 2017. That's due in part to the suppression of sales to some extent in the first-time home buyer market by this mortgage stress test. But other than that I definitely see a recovery in 2019 as I had forecasted."

By the way, he says the top price paid for a home in Steinbach so far this year is $625,000 for a residence on Lion's Gate.