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WINNIPEGGERS gave winter the cold shoulder and snapped up homes at a record-breaking pace in March, according to new MLS sales figures issued Thursday.

WinnipegREALTORS said 1,186 properties changed hands last month through its Multiple Listing Service. Not only was that a seven-per-cent increase from the same month last year, it was the highest March total in the association’s 108-year history.

It was also the best March on record for dollar volume of sales, with $274.9 million worth of transactions. That was a 14-per-cent improvement from a year earlier.

The surge in sales also helped set a new record for the most unit sales — 2,533 — and highest dollar-volume of sales — $570.5 million — in a first quarter.

“No previous first quarter has eclipsed one half a billion dollars before,” the association said in a statement.

WR president Ralph Fyfe said with all of that fevered buying, March feels more like a spring month than a winter month.

“We were very, very busy.”

And Fyfe doesn’t see things letting up much over the next few months, in spite of the serious flood threat in southern Manitoba and the dwindling supply of homes on the market.

“If I was a betting person, I’d say we should be in for a very, very strong spring.”

Fyfe said the demand for homes remains red hot, with nearly three out of four new listings and almost half all active listings selling in March. And bidding wars were commonplace, with 48 per cent of properties selling for more than their listed price.

He also predicted some home seekers will want to buy this spring to avoid future interest-rate increases.

He said the frantic buying in March was due in part to first-time buyers trying to get a deal done before the change in federal mortgage rules took effect on March 18. The change reduced the mortgage amortization period to 30 years from 35 years, which means higher monthly mortgage payments.

“I didn’t think it would have that big of an impact, but clearly it did.”

He said first-time buyers were a driving force in the market last month because 44 per cent of homes sold were priced between $150,000 and $250,000.

“And that (price range) is a big segment of it (the first-time-buyers market),” he said.

“It’s also where we saw a lot of the bidding wars.”

Fyfe said one of the biggest concerns he has going into spring is the shortage of available listings.

“It’s becoming an all too familiar pattern over the last number of years where we find ourselves with not enough inventory going into our busiest time of the year,” he said.