How Winnipeg's real estate market fared in December

New data shows Winnipeg’s real estate sector closed 2023 on a high note, with steady increases in sales, listings, dollar volume and average prices.

The numbers were released Tuesday by the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board.

The market report shows sales for all property types were up over December 2022. Meantime, listings and dollar volumes were also up over last year, marking the third time in 2023 where all three statistical categories were up in the same month.

Board president Rena Prefontaine said she was pleasantly surprised by the numbers.

“December typically tends to be a month where people are thinking about the holidays and busy doing other things,” she said.

“If the weather cools down, usually the market cools down as well, but I guess we had a warmer than normal December, so people tended to be out there looking at houses.”

Average prices also increased over last December for all three main property types of residential detached and attached, as well as condominiums.

While sales for all property types were up eight per cent over last December, 2023 was still 16 per cent below the five-year average.

It’s something Prefontaine attributes to the fallout of the pandemic real estate boom.

“We did see some really crazy increases during the pandemic years, so when compared to the five-year average or the average over even the ten years, they’re very respectable numbers for 2023.”

Other key takeaways –of the 410 residential detached sales in December across the board’s market region, 280 were in Winnipeg while the remaining 130 were outside Winnipeg.

Waverley West was the neighbourhood in Winnipeg that saw the most residential detached home sales in December, followed closely by the Island Lakes/Royalwood area.

The Morris and Winkler areas saw the most residential detached homes sold outside of Winnipeg, followed by Steinbach.

The average price of a residential detached home rose seven per cent over last December, and is up 11 per cent over the five-year average.

The most active residential detached price range was from $350,000 to $374,999.

There were six residential detached homes sold at $1 million or more in December.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2024, Prefontaine says it is hard to predict where the market will go, but she is optimistic.

“Obviously things like inflation, interest rates, immigration – they’re all going to play a role on the real estate market as they always do, but we’re also intrigued to see what the $122 million housing influx from the federal government will do with the City of Winnipeg.”

- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé