Lifestyle properties still selling strong

But farm sales continued to suffer from a shortage of listings, especially in more expensive properties, resulting in static sales of 173 properties, the same as September.

The median selling price for those properties fell from $873,000 in September to $825,000 in October, REINZ said, but attributed this to the transfer of a larger number of lower end properties.

REINZ suggests that tight supply is more of an issue than buyer fatigue.

The increasingly tightly held nature of the farm market is becoming "a real issue" with sales significantly down on two years ago when 213 sales took place in October 2003, according to REINZ president Howard Morley.

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