Hamilton

Weather was warm, as was Hamilton's housing market in December

Hamilton-Burlington realtors say the region last month reached the highest number of homes sold in a December ever, the fifth straight month of records broken.

Highest-ever number of homes sold in a December

Home ownership is top of mind for people in Metro Vancouver according to a new study on Canadian identity by Angus Reid in collaboration with the CBC. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

December is not usually the time you want to list your house for sale. 

But those who did found themselves in yet another record-breaking month for the number of homes sold, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington.

Sales were 17.6 per cent higher than the 10-year average for December. The 802 properties sold were an all-time December record.

"It seems an appropriate way to end a year which saw so many previous sales records fall," said RAHB CEO George O'Neill. 

The median and average home prices were up about 9 per cent last month compared to December prices in 2014.

Condos were up even more. While the number of sales dropped slightly from a year earlier, the median price of a condo sold in December was $301,250, up nearly 14 per cent from December 2014.

Stripping condos out of the residential sales, the median price for a freehold home sold in December was $380,000, up 7 per cent from $355,500 in December 2014.