A lack of real estate listings continues to push down home sales in southern New Brunswick.

The Saint John Real Estate Board reported 147 home sales during the month of April.

That was down from 151 homes the previous month and remained well below average for this time of year.

Kevin Donovan, president of the board, said he believes the drop was due to a lack of available listings.

“Homeowners may have been reluctant to put their properties on the market in recent months due to the unavailability of attractive replacement options,” Donovan said in a news release.

“As a result, the number of sales in April continued to feel the effect of lower supply.”

The number of new listings in April increased slightly to 216, compared to 211 listings in March. Active residential listings numbered 434 units at the end of April, up from 395 a month earlier.

But both numbers remained much lower than what we would typically see for the month of April.

“Despite the number of properties for sale increasing to its highest level since late 2022, it is still only slightly above one-third of the 10-year average for April,” said Donovan.

“Although the market continues to heavily favour sellers, there has been no significant increase in the number of newly listed properties.”

Meanwhile, the benchmark price for a single-family home in April stood at $278,000, up from just under $270,000 in March.

Donovan is not surprised to see the increase especially with the real estate market conditions remaining so tight.

“If the current conditions persist, it is likely that prices will continue to rise as buyers bid on the remaining desirable properties,” he said.

The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen and includes the counties of Saint John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens.