The president of the Sarnia Lambton Association of Realtors is breathing a sigh of relief as the local market bounced back in March.
A total of 120 homes were sold, with a combined value of $63.6 million.
March also saw the addition of 321 new listings for a total of 532 active listings.
Jeremy Guerette said the 4.4 months worth of inventory is considered a high number but is down almost 10 per cent compared to this time last year.
"Spring through summer, the average price is up, and early winter and late winter, it's a little down. All that looks good," said Guerette. "Overall, I think the sales activity is still a little bit lower than what would be our common 10-year average. We are still a little bit below that. The listings are also up. We've got a lot of new listings, so it's still a high inventory. However, that inventory is down from the previous year."
The sales were identical to those from 2025 and the dollar volume was up 8 per cent compared to last March.
Guerette said the average sale price also bounced back to normal levels last month, up eight per cent from March 2025's average.
"The year-to-date average sale price is $485,000, but it's kind of hard when you look at the first three months," he said. "Our average price for the month of March was $531,000, which would be probably more the approximate average. We started the year in 2025 at $525,000 approximately and ended the year at $525,000 approximately. I don't think we've seen any significant drops in that. It's just that January and February are typically lower numbers."
In February, the average sale price was just $421,186.
The sales-to-new-listing ratio was 37.4 per cent for March, which indicates a buyer's market, and homes are spending an average of 29 days on the market.
Guerette said he'll continue to keep a close eye on this.
"I would like to think that we did have a long, hard winter, and I think people were maybe a little tired of that and not really interested in getting out and looking at houses," said Guerette. "Also, I think a lot of people went on vacation this year. All of that can be attributed to it, but it's nice to see it bounce back, for sure."
This comes after a disappointing February when 72 homes changed hands, representing a decline of 24.2 per cent compared to February 2025.
Home sales were also 34.7 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of February.
Guerette expects new HST rules to benefit buyers.
The province has temporarily removed the 13 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on new homes valued up to $1 million from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027.
"That's a big discount," he said. "We've already seen some new home construction make some drastic price changes. If you are looking for a new home, I would say in the next year it's definitely a good time to buy one of those."
