July 2020 Market Intelligence

The markets are all on absolute FIRE!The average sale price in Oakville has finally got back the same highs of 2017 as you can see in the U shaped graph below. We had a $1,249, 685 average sales price in Oakville last month which is month over month increase of $146,342 or 13% in one month, wiping out any Corona-losses and then some an a solid volume of 332 deals. If we compare these numbers to last year at this same time, we have enjoyed an increase of $177,550 in average sales price or 16% while the volume increased by 24 deals or 7.7%. Pretty remarkable, all things considered. Why are prices going up in the middle of a pandemic? Lots of pent up demand from the inactivity in April, low supply, and low interest rates, combined with a general sense that we as a country and more specifically as a province seem to be doing a good job in our fight against covid-19 in the grand scheme of things. 

Burlington continues it’s torrid pace with 292 deals for the month and only 1.2 month’s supply (flashback to 2016/2017) with multiple offers being more normal than not. With a new average sales price of $900,697.00 (2.5% increase from last month, and a 12% increase over June 2019) for the month we have set an all time high new record in Burlington. 

Milton has almost regained all of it’s Corona related price losses by posting an average sales price of $833,527.00 across 251 deals which is actually more impressive to me than Burlington’s numbers because of the discrepancy in the model mix between Milton and Burlington, since Burlington has so many higher priced home options south of the QEW just like Oakville, whereas Milton has a very small selection of higher priced estate homes mostly in the outskirts of town atop the escarpment. Milton’s average price of $833,527.00 was an increase of $59,371.00 over the previous month, or 7.6%. The year over year increase was about the same. The rising prices in Milton will certainly continue as the month’s supply is now 0.9% which is what is was in the height of the craziest market we’ve ever seen in 2016/2017. We are definitely back there now and it will take offers with no conditions to win a well priced and well appointed home once again. We do have strategies to do this as safely as possible by bringing a home inspector with us to the house for the showing to do a shorter one hour inspection to cover the most important things and by having a solid pre-approval from the bank or broker, but if you are at all borderline in terms of getting approved, if you aren’t a 10/10 in the bank’s eyes, you are better off looking at an overpriced house that has been on the market longer (because it’s overpriced) and negotiate the price down to market value with the ability to have your conditions. Most of the time the only reason a house sits on the market isn’t because there’s something wrong with it (apart from some location issues like being beside a cemetery or things of that nature) it’s usually just because it’s over priced, so they can be a good source of inventory for people who need to be more careful in the buying process.