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9 | Thursday October 12, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com Average monthly sale price for Halton Region between September 2016 and September 2017. | Graeme Frisque/Metroland graphic Halton Region's frothy real estate market goes flat by Graeme Frisque Metroland West Media Halton Region's real estate market has been in a bit of a funk since peaking in the spring. September sales and price data for the region released Wednesday, Oct. 4 by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), showed the average price for all types of dwellings across the region fell to $853,513 -- a far cry from the benchmark average of $1,015,544 posted this past February. While year-over-year values remain slightly above 2016 prices, the numbers, both in terms of average selling price and total sales, have been in decline since that February peak. Year-over-year, the average price for a home in Halton Region is up 1.7 per cent. Once again, a far cry from the 30-plus per cent year-over-year gains seen earlier in the year. Between June and September of this year, the average selling price for a home in the region has stagnated at between $834,000 and $868,000. The 16 per cent decline in prices since February has been accompanied by a 29 per cent drop in year-over-year sales compared to September 2016. Halton Region saw 820 sales last September compared to 581 last month -- the lowest September mark since 2012 when the region saw 409 total sales for that month. The best performing sector in terms of average price for the whole region was in the condo sector, which saw a seven per cent bump over last year. Semi-detached dwellings rose by 5.9 per cent year over year, while detached homes saw a 2.7 per cent increase over September 2016. On the flip side, new listings have spiked 21.9 per cent year-over-year with 1,503 dwellings of all types listed last month, compared to 1,233 in September 2016. Historically speaking, 2017 has been something of a wild year for Halton Region real estate, which until this year saw incremental, but mostly continuous gains since January 2012, when the average selling price for a home in Halton Region came in at $491,561. Between January 2012 and the region's peak average valuation in February 2017, Halton Region's market increased by 106 per cent over a five-year period -- more than doubling in value at a pace of 21.2 per cent annually. While sales have been down fairly consistently and sharply across the board since February, each market has seen its own individual price swings throughout 2017. In some cases, those swings have been very pronounced -- an anomaly when looking at the last five years of market behaviour for the region. The picture becomes a little more volatile when breaking down the region's four major markets, which includes Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville. In Burlington, the market topped out at an average price of $878,631 in May, and saw its weakest month in terms of average price in July at $748,465. It came in at an average price of $810,531 in September. Halton Hills, on the other hand, has seen much more volatility in 2017, peaking at a record high of $849,407 in August before dropping to its lowest mark of the year a month later in September at $632,703 -- a more than $216,000 swing month over month. Oakville, which saw the largest average price gains in first months of the year, topped out see Oakville on p.16 Oct. 12 - Oct. 26 only Blue Canoe & City Dining Furniture Canadian Made