If you were hoping that home prices would stop their steep fall, it appears that this may finally be happening.
“The prices seem to be bottoming out,” says Greig Turvey, Sales Representative, GoWylde Team/ReMax.
That’s because for the first time since February of this year, there is a positive month-over-month average sale price in Kitchener/Waterloo.
“Prices are only up 1% overall, and one month of data is obviously not enough to make any strong predictions, but this same trend is being seen in the surrounding markets, as well as in Toronto, where the average price has increased slightly for the past two months,” says the REALTOR®.
Turvey says detached homes have been leading the way for this increase. In Kitchener/Waterloo, they were up 4%, while attached homes were down 1% and condos were down 5%, month over month. Compared to September of last year, the average prices in all housing categories are down 4-9%.
The average sale price for detached homes last month was $869,664. For attached homes it was $627,331 and for condos and apartments it was $451,188.
Prices seem to be very close to the “bottom” and appear to be leveling out; they could even start trending upwards.
Many first-time buyers, who had been waiting on the sidelines as prices dropped, seem to be entering back into the market, indicating that there seems to be some confidence that prices are not going to continue to fall, at least at a very high rate.
It seems many sellers opted to list in the Summer, rather than waiting until Fall. New listings were only up 3% in September, compared to August.
Houses are selling more slowly and buyers have more choice—as indicated by the months of inventory recorded. This stat measures how many houses are purchased relative to the average amount of inventory and it increased 26% in September. Keep in mind that this is still a relatively low number when compared to markets that are outside of Canada.
Towards the end of October, the Bank of Canada is set to increase interest rates once again. “As long as they ‘only’ increase rates by 75 basis points, I don’t suspect we will see much of an impact on the market,” says Turvey.
“I think we are finally close enough to the bottom that it is ‘safe’ for buyers to start coming back, without risking losing too much more equity. So long as your time horizon is 5+ years, I think it’s very unlikely that purchasing real estate is going to be a poor investment. As the age-old investment advice goes: ‘Time in the market beats timing the market.’”
Stay up to date with the latest market trends in Kitchener and Waterloo with real estate agents Brad Wylde and Greig Turvey.
Visit the GoWylde Team or call 519-826-7109 for more information.
