KW house prices show one of the highest increases nationally since 2019

Kitchener-Waterloo placed fifth on the list of highest increases in house prices nationally, according to a report made by Zoocasa, a real-estate website and brokerage.

This area was compared to 19 other Canadian cities with data pulled from the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The report showed prices in the region have increased by 55 per cent in the last five years. In 2019, the average price sat around $476,900 — now, it’s closer to $740,900.

Furthermore, stats from Statistics Canada show more people are leaving Ontario for other provinces.

Local Realtor Sharon Forbes works for Zoocasa and said she has seen that move happening locally.

“Mostly it’s Calgary, or I’ve even seen Nova Scotia, I had a lot of people living in the region who are either relocating there or just choosing to invest in those areas,” Forbes said. “The majority of the people that I move that do buy within Kitchener-Waterloo, my clients there not just relocated from one house in Kitchener-Waterloo to another, a lot of them are coming from the GTA and less investors to be honest lately.”

Forbes said the cap on international students and other government measures are keeping investors from buying into the region lately. Adding, if that two-year ban lasts longer then that it could take a toll on the number of people investing.

“Depending on when you purchased in the last five years, some people are definitely taking a small hit because by the time they went to close, interest rates went up and that will affect their buying power,” said Forbes.

“A lot of pre-construction that had closed their lowering their prices as well because well people are not buying them for those high prices that the seller had bought them for so I see those selling for a lot lower than they would have two years ago.”

Guelph made tenth on that list with a 48 per cent increase in those five years.

Forbes said the house price growth is high for this area, as she said more people working from home, the tech industry and university make it easy for investors – and the LRT lines also assist commuters.

“Between 2020 and maybe the end of 2021 I was not getting a lot of first-time home buyers, they just couldn’t afford it, they were being completely priced out of the market. In the last year and a half the majority of my specific clients have been first time home buyers,” said Forbes.

Alongside Kitchener-Waterloo, the Niagara Region, the London area and Ottawa all surpassed the national benchmark prices since March 2019.