Halton Hills Housing Update - Ep.157

Hi, everyone! Welcome to this week's Halton Hills housing update from Legoland in Florida. Air Canada canceled our flights, and so we had to find something to do for four days. So, this is a fun little update this week. Let's dive right in. We're going to start by looking at February's numbers. So, in February of 2022, our average price was $1,394,000, so almost $1.4 million. This year, we are down to $1,026,000. So that is down over 26% year over year. You might remember, last February and March were really the peak of our market. That's as high as we got last year, so no huge surprise to be down 26%. Another notable thing is that last February, we had 92 properties sell in Halton Hills. This February, we only had 51 sell. So, almost half the transactions, even though there is actually more inventory available to buy. Another notable thing is that in February of 2021, so two years ago, our average price was 1.1 million. So we are down more than we were two years ago. This is a conversation that we have every week and it’s that sellers need to realize our prices are way backwards. So, that’s what happened in February!

Looking at our sales for last week, it was a very notable week. I was like shocked with what happened while I was gone.  In Georgetown, we had 17 sales which is a huge week for Georgetown. The market is so busy right now. I had a listing and it got five offers and more than $100,000 over asking, and I didn’t think I under listed it. So we are back in that hype market. It's pretty crazy right now with buyers. So, we had 17 sales in Georgetown, but only twelve new listings.  So, that means inventory is going to be down, and quite a few properties also came off the market. There were 13 properties that terminated last week, so that's not really good for inventory either.

Acton had two sales and two new listings. Glen Williams had one sale and two new listings. Nothing happened in Limehouse, and the rural market had one sale and one new listing. The notable thing this week though was that seven properties sold over their asking price. So, like I said, I had one that went a little bit crazy last week. Granted, a ravine lot in Georgetown South doesn’t come up all the time, but to see all of these properties get over asking is really surprising, and we’re staring to see properties holding offers again. If you remember, two weeks ago I talked about a property that was, like, on the market, and they tried to go down to $699,000. Well, that didn't work and they're right back up to their old list price. We are going to start to see this strategy again though now that the market is picking up.

Looking at active inventory- this is crazy. All of Halton Hills is down to 106 active listings. When I did my market update two weeks ago we were at 114 active listings, so we are going in the opposite direction I thought we would be heading. I still don't think this is going to be the case for the entire year, but it’s interesting to see what's happening right now. Looking at Georgetown, there are only 60 active listings. That is our lowest number since the start of the year. Two weeks ago, we were at 66, so we're gradually making our way down. 60 is a very low number for Georgetown, but when we look at our active price points under $800,000, there are nine available listings and six of them are freehold property. So, even though it's very busy, we are still seeing price points coming backwards. To have that many freehold properties under $800,000 is definitely notable. For this week, $800,000 to a million is down from 18 active listings to 16. Things are continuing to move in that pocket. It started to get a bit busier in mid February and we started to see the properties in higher price point selling. So, one to 1.5 million is down from 21 to 18 Active Listings. So there is not a ton of inventory there. In the peak of our market, we were over 50 listings in that one to 1.5 million range. At only 18, there is not a ton available. The 1.5 million plus range, we've actually seen quite a few transactions transact in that pocket. We're down from 20 active listings to 17. I would still say though that this is the deadest price point. There are very few buyers in that pocket but it is interesting to see a couple of sales happening there. Acton is down from 15 to twelve active listings. Twelve is pretty low and we were more than double that for December and most of January in Acton, so they've come down pretty significantly. As supply dwindles, we're going to see more demand and activity happening in Acton, I imagine. Glen Williams is interesting. We're up from six to nine Active Listings, which is quite a few for Glen Williams. Most of them are a higher ticket product, so they're not going to be moving but there's still a couple of those lower price point things available in the Glen. Limehouse remained the same at one active listing, and the rural market is down from 26 to 24 active listings, still much higher than where we were in the rural market, but it's softening a bit. What I noticed last week when I was looking at the new listings, and I’ve been waiting for this, is that properties that were on the market last year and terminated are now coming back on the market. I think I came across four properties that were for sale in 2022 and have now re-entered as new listings. I think people are starting to see that demand is here and we are probably going to start feeling an increase in listings in the coming month, I would say. I definitely don't think we're going to see prices dramatically increasing and I don't think that the market is going to turn around and be going into a good spot. I do think what's happening right now is we're sitting with low inventory and there is a lot of demand out there. Buyers have climatized to where the interest rates are and it's just busy right now.

I think that if you're a seller, it's a good time to be selling to capitalize on the current demand. For buyers, it's very competitive right now and if you hold off probably two or three months, you're probably going to be in a market that is much more favorable to you, not having to compete and to having the ability to put in conditions again and things like that. But, right now, we're sort of in an in between that I'm surprised to see this year because of the interest rates and where we came from, but it's happening. So, I will be back next Tuesday, hopefully in Canada, with what happens and where the trends are going. I think right now we're going to continue to see sales heavy, and listings are going to, I think, remain somewhat low, but I think that's going to change over the next four weeks. So, I'll be back next Tuesday. Have a great week!