Halton Hills Housing Update - Ep.188

Hi everyone! Welcome to this week's Halton Hills housing update. I was on vacation last week so I am going to try to summarize two weeks today. 

In Georgetown over the past two weeks, we had four sales last week and nine sales this week. That’s only 13 sales in two weeks which is very low and would be a normal number for one week in a regular market. The worst part though is that we had 29 new listings, 11 last week and 18 this week, so there are a lot of new listings hitting the market and not a ton of properties are selling. Acton had six sales over the past two weeks which isn't a huge number but a good number for Acton. Things are still moving and there hasn’t been a ton of new inventory so they’re actually down this week. There were only three new listings in he last two weeks, which is pretty low considering what’s happening in Georgetown.  There were no sales in Glen Williams over the past two weeks but there were three new listings which is pretty high for the Glen. We usually don’t see that many but most are in a higher price point so these likely won’t be moving too quickly. There are some lower priced properties available in the Glen too and those normally sell pretty fast so it just shows what the market is doing. Nothing happened in Limehouse but the rural market had three sales and four new listings over the past two weeks. That is pretty good news right now. Georgetown is the market that’s starting to feel the pinch of what’s happening. We did have some properties terminate and a couple re-list, all at a lower price than before. The properties in the one to 1.5 price point are the ones that did price adjustments the most and some even dropped by hundreds of thousands. It’s really interesting to see what is happening with pricing here, but it’s definitely not great news for sellers. It’s just sheer supply and demand. We have so many properties available right now but buyers are hesitant and the same thing happened last fall. 

Looking at our active inventory, when I left we were at 203 active listings and we are now up to 216. Inventory is super high and last year the peak was in the 190s. We’re at 216 and I don’t think it is really going to slow down. It feels like we would never see 250 because that feels really high, but if we keep climbing week after week and sales aren’t happening, 250 could be something we start to see in Halton Hills, which feels crazy! Prices will be in a really bad spot if we hit anywhere near those numbers. So, two weeks ago Georgetown was at 126 active listings. We are now up to 137 in Georgetown and the interesting thing is that this is not the highest we’ve seen. We’ve been in the 140s before, but we are climbing and there is a ton available. Looking at our active price points, under $800,000 went from 11 to 14 active listings. We have a ton of condo townhouses and condo apartments for sale. There are also a few freehold properties that aren't moving either and this is the price point that typically sits pretty low because of it’s pricing. Eight hundred thousand to a million is up to 31 active listings and that is the most I have ever seen in this pocket. There are a ton of townhouses and that is probably because despite them being spacious (sometimes bigger than a detached house) people will opt for a detached house if they can get it at a similar price. That price point sitting high is very bad news overall because that is usually our price point that sits low and it moves and it moves, but that's not happening right now. One to 1.5 million - yikes! It’s the highest we’ve ever seen at 61 properties. It’s almost split down the middle in terms of pricing. Thirty of the listings are one to 1.25 million and 31 of them are 1.25 to 1.5 million. To have 61 listings there is really bad news for sellers because there are so many properties to choose from as a buyer and there are sellers out there who have to sell which will inevitably cause pricing to come down. Alot of the price reductions we’re seeing have also been in that price point but just know if you’re a seller in that price point, you are not alone in the fact that you’re not selling and likely not getting a ton of showings. 1.5 million plus is actually down from 36 to 32 active listings. We saw a couple properties re-list and reduce their price down to the one to 1.5 price point, so those prices are softening too. People aren’t willing to spend over two million dollars on a subdivision home right now. 

So, really interesting numbers in Georgetown over the past two weeks! It is definitely the place that is feeling the negative effects of what's happening in our market right now. Acton is down from 27 to 23 active listings but I’m not really surprised because they have some really low priced properties and that is what is selling right now. Glen Williams is up from five to nine active listings which is pretty high for the Glen. A lot of them are a higher price so they likely won’t move as rapidly. Limehouse remained the same at three and the rural market is up to 44 from 43. So, it’s a slight jump, but it is sitting very high in comparison to where we would normally be in terms of rural inventory. 

Overall, I think this market update is exactly what I predicted it would be. I don’t know where prices are going to fall this month but last October we were under a million dollars for our average price in Halton Hills. I suspect that may be the case again but we have only seen around 22 sales in the first half of the month so our units are just not moving right now. If you’re a seller it’s not great news but you aren’t alone. It really is dead right now. If you can get an offer on your house I think you should really work with it because not a lot of buyers are willing to pull the trigger right now. 

So, I'll be back next Tuesday to see what happens. Have a great week everyone!