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What are Homes Selling for in Your Area?

Whether you are currently involved with buying or selling a home or a homeowner with a healthy dose of curiosity, finding out what homes are selling for in your area can be a very worthwhile process. There are a few ways you can accomplish this task and some involve a little more digging than others.

Search the MLS® (Multiple Listing Service)
The MLS® www.realtor.ca is operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association and contains information, including current listing prices, of various properties listed across Canada. Advantages of using this system in researching home prices include:

– very user friendly
– you can search from your own computer at your leisure
– you can define your search by using various parameters

You can also peruse listings from various local real estate websites; however, most of these listings, unless they are exclusive to that office, are the same as those you would find on the MLS®.

Real Estate Agent
A conversation with a real estate agent may shed some light on the listing and selling prices of homes in your area as well as the length of time they have been on the market. A real estate agent or salesperson has access to the SOLD information which they obtain from the local Real Estate Board. This would not be the ideal manner to go about researching prices for curiosity sake. You should be willing to form some sort of relationship with the agent in exchange for the information they will provide to you. This could be ongoing, even if you aren’t thinking of buying or selling for some time. A REALTOR® has the research and expertise to provide a market assessment of what properties in your area have sold for. They can also provide information on market history, such as the number of properties sold in your community the previous month or year.

Local Real Estate Boards may produce Real Estate Guides usually on a weekly basis and often included in local newspapers. The guides will display homes currently listed for sale with the various real estate offices within a specific location.

Builder Websites or Sales Offices
New home builder websites may contain prices of current models for sale, available and sold lots and lot premiums. You can also visit the sales office, if available, and ask for the same information. Model plans and prices are usually very accessible to the public and they may even disclose prices of homes sold in the project. If you are searching for a builder website, you can visit your local Home Builders’ Association website to obtain the link and contact information.

Property Assessment Information
Property assessment information in New Brunswick is available online through Service New Brunswick where you have the ability to look up the assessed value of properties in your area as well as other locations within NB. Assessed values of homes are based on market value. According to SNB, “Market value is the most probable price that a property would sell for on the open market on a given point in time – as of January 1 of each tax year in New Brunswick. Assessors in New Brunswick review and measure each localized real estate market to establish typical market value.”

The assessment office also has access to the purchase price of homes sold in their area but this information has not been readily available to the public in the past. Legislation is currently changing that will now allow this information to be available to the public. The information is not available online; however, you could contact your local assessment office to enquire whether their office is set up to provide you with this information.

Can you suggest any other ways to research prices of homes in a specific location?