Home sales booming in Waterloo Region

The February thaw was good for home sales in Waterloo Region.

Cornerstone Association of Realtors is out with its latest monthly housing data, and it is showing a whopping nearly 26 per cent increase in home sales in Waterloo Region compared to January.

The bitter cold and heavy snowfall didn’t help those looking to either buy or sell a property at the beginning of the year.

Last month, significantly more properties exchanged hands.

“Waterloo Region is showing resilience with a significant monthly increase in sales, potentially renewing seller confidence,” said Cornerstone CEO Bill Duce.

“The stable prices from January to February in Kitchener-Waterloo and a slight uptick in Cambridge Home Price Index (HPI) could signal the bottoming out of price declines we’ve seen over the past year and reflect a market adapting and finding its footing despite broader economic pressure.”

Duce notes this is not necessarily the case province-wide.

“The market continues to remain constrained by affordability challenges and global economic uncertainty,” said Duce.

“Without meaningful policy changes that introduce incentives for buyers, we risk losing the progress needed to increase market activity and restore balance.”

Cornerstone is calling for more financial support from all levels of government, specifically for first time home buyers.

The average home sale price in Waterloo Region last month rang in at nearly $727,000, which marks a drop of 5.4 per cent year over year.

Waterloo had the highest average home sale price in the tri-cities at $868,723, that’s up 14.3 per cent.

In the townships, Woolwich and Wellesley combined for the highest average home sale price of just over $1 million, up 3.1 per cent.

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