February 2019 Market Intelligence

26% Increase in Sales Volume and 0.7% Increase in Price Compared to December 2018

Hi everyone. As you can see in the charts above January 2019 has similar sales to January 2018 and a 3.8% increase in average price compared to one year ago. The demand continues to overcome all of the government intervention that has been put in place over the last 2 years, including the mortgage stress test. There are still more than enough people who NEED to move. The big difference in the numbers from 2017 is that there just aren’t the same number of people who WANT to move. What we are beginning to see now in 2019 is the rejuvenation of the WANT to move buyers and sellers who have been waiting patiently on the sidelines to see how the mortgage stress test will affect sales prices. There have been more signs of stability in the market over the last 6 months, and that has strengthened even more with a widely held opinion that the Bank of Canada will not be increasing their overnight rate as quickly as it has been, if at all in 2019. The liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau is considering allowing 30 year terms on insured mortgages again (this is an election year). The unemployment numbers that were just released also lend confidence to our housing market. The United States seem to be on their way to reaching a deal that will keep their government working and Trump has stepped off the gas pedal about his self imposed deadline for his trade war with China, all of these events are having a positive effect on the WANT to buy crowd. I anticipate that our spring market (which seems to already be starting now) will be very busy for us in real estate. The market is nicely balanced among buyers and sellers with 3.9 months supply. If you were thinking of starting to look in March or April, you might be able to beat the crowd by starting in February instead and going with a longer closing period.

If you consider yourself a value buyer you will notice that our average selling price in Oakville is 18% lower than it was in March of 2017. If you look at the last 35 years of real estate data you will find that 5% is the average price increase per year. Will we be back to an average selling price of $1,294,111 in 3.6 years from now? I don’t have a crystal ball to know the answer for sure but I would say there’s a good chance.

Call me anytime if you would like to talk about Real Estate 905-399-4269.