A housing market analyst says Steinbach was no exception to last year's slowdown in sales.

Peter Squire with Multiple Listing Service reports there were 417 single family home sales in Steinbach in 2018 compared to 437 in 2017. Squire says that is a drop of less than 5 per cent, which is similar to what was noticed across the entire market last year.

"There were some adjustments given tougher mortgage qualification rules and some higher interest rates that buyers had to contend with in 2018," reports Squire.

Further to that, he notes 2017 was a good year for sales. He adds to see a dropoff in 2018 should not be viewed as a sign of weakness.

There were 832 listings last year, compared to 820 in 2017, which Squire says is a sign that the Steinbach market is still very active.

The average selling price for a single family home last year was $281,071, compared to $275,914 in 2017.

Numbers were also down on the condominium side.

"Condos fell off and they again fell off more than single family in our entire market but a little bit more in Steinbach," reports Squire.

There were 42 condo sales in Steinbach last year and 53 in 2017. The average selling price for a condominium last year was $198,117, up from $186,666 in 2017.

"That's contrast to the entire market where we saw prices drop roughly about two per cent on average across the entire market region," says Squire. "So Steinbach actually saw a little bit of an increase in their average condo price in 2018."

Meanwhile, Squire says it is too early to forecast what 2019 might look like. Squire says he is comforted by the fact he is not expecting tougher rules to be introduced in 2019.

"I'd like to think that we could see a little bit of a recovery from 2018," he says. "But at this point still looking at all the numbers and we'll come out with our forecast in early February."