AMHERST - Numbers might be down compared to last year, but local realtors are optimistic the numbers will continue to rise as they've done since the beginning of the year.
With 62 listings across the county, realtors with Coldwell Banker have been busy over the last couple of weeks.
"Traditionally, this is our busy season," said Kathy Morash. "April and May are the busiest and we're certainly not expecting it to slow down. Sellers and buyers shouldn't expect to see a downturn any time soon."
Morash says sellers are picking up a lot of the more expensive houses, but older homes are still a tough sell.
"The more expensive homes are being bought by people transferring from outside the region, and there's definitely a market for multi-family homes," she said.
While many in the business were hoping westerners would come to the area this past summer, that didn't happen as well as they had expected and Morash says this should be the year for that.
At Royal LePage Preview Realty, Carla Bouchard also says busines is becoming busier.
"You'll find that some companies are up and some are down, but as an office, we're up from where we were last year and we have been since the beginning of the year," she said.
Bouchard says that like much of the province, when you look at Amherst, the numbers are down overall, but not significantly.
"We're down in inventory and we have clients looking for homes that we just don't have. If you look at Moncton for example, they were up for the month of March over last year."
In terms of the recession hitting other parts of the country, Bouchard and Morash don't feel much changed locally.
"We never do feel it in communities with prices like here as the rest of Canada," Bouchard said. "There are a lot of families retiring that look at moving here because of the affordable housing."
rtetanish@amherstdaily.com
