The city of Steinbach saw a dip in single-family home sales in 2022.

Jeremy Davis is a market analyst with Multiple Listing Service. He says there were 196 sales in the city last year, compared to 227 the previous year, which works out to a 14 per cent drop. The number of listings was also down with 258 last year, compared to 262 in 2021.

While sales were down, the average selling price continues to climb. Last year, the average single-family home sold for $353,167, up from $328,373 the previous year. 

When you include Steinbach and area, there were 467 sales from 742 listings last year. The highest-priced sale in Steinbach and area in 2022 was $1.2 million.

Taking a look at condominiums, there were 39 sales from 53 listings in Steinbach in 2022. That is a drop in sales of 43 per cent from 2021. The average selling price for a condominium in Steinbach was $211,974, also down from the year prior. 

When you include Steinbach and area, there were 51 condominium sales from 66 listings.

According to Davis, single-family home sales in Steinbach last year were only the fifth highest in the last decade, but the second highest when you consider dollar volume. When you include Steinbach and area, last year's totals were the third highest for both sales and dollar volume. 

Davis says one of the interesting trends for the larger market region, which also held true for Steinbach and area was that from 2020 through the first half of 2022, sales were stronger than they were pre-pandemic, while listings were down. 

"And in a market with not many listings and higher sales/ demand, you typically see multiple offer situations that drive prices up," explains Davis. "That certainly was a common theme across our market region."

Davis says with listings rebounding during the second half of 2022 and sales levelling off, it brought us back into a balanced market.

"And that's really where we want to be because it puts buyers and sellers on equal footing to get a fair price," he explains. "We should be okay in 2023."
    
Davis notes house sales in Manitoba were strong during the pandemic for a number of reasons. For one, he says a lot of people who were suddenly working from home realized that their house was too cramped. A second factor is that many people had more time on their hands to make renovations to their home, which ultimately increased the value, prompting homeowners to then try to immediately sell their home for a better price.