Halton Hills Housing Update - Ep.193

Hi everyone! Welcome to this week's Halton Hills housing update. So, our numbers have continued to trend downwards. In Georgetown last week, there were 10 sales and only six new listings. We haven't seen double digit sales in one week since the end of July, so this is great news for sellers. The bad news though is that pricing has come down pretty significantly. There was a Delrex bungalow that sold for just over $800,000 and a really nice Georgetown South home that probably would have gotten between $1,400,000 and $1,500,000 before, and it got under $1,200,000. So, we definitely are seeing pricing scale backwards, but if you are a seller who needs to sell right now, it is good news that we are seeing transactions. Six new listing is also a really low number of new listings and technically it was eight listings but I do not count properties that are under construction since these are the resale home numbers. This just further proof that the market slows down at this point in the year. Also, out of the 10 houses that sold, eight of them sold under a million and the highest sale was $1,175,000, which was the one in Georgetown South that I mentioned earlier. Under a million is still the sweet spot and that is because most buyers cannot come up with the 20% down that you have to have when you buy a home for more than one million.

In Acton, there were no sales but two new listings. In Georgetown and Limehouse there were no sales and no new listings. In the rural market there was one sale and two new listings. I’ve been looking at what properties have come off the market and done price adjustments and last week there were 19 properties that went to the expired, terminated, or suspended status. Of the 19, 11 of them came completely off the market and did not re-enter. This is something we’ve seen a lot but now we also have strong sales numbers, which is helping bring inventory down. Of the 19, one raised their price and six lowered the price, some by about $100,000. We’re seeing some big shifts in pricing and it’s starting to come down into more of a realistic territory. 

Looking at our active inventory, last week we were at 210 active listings in all of Halton Hills and this week we are down to 201. We’re almost under the 200 mark, which is great news for any seller because we have never had this high of inventory before. To see it coming down rapidly is honestly relieving for those who actually have to sell because there's less inventory for buyers to choose from. In Georgetown this week we are down from 127 to 117 active listings. That is a huge drop compared to where we were a few weeks ago, when we were in the 140s. It’s still a buyer’s market but it less inventory will benefit sellers because there is less competition. So, looking at price points, under $800,000 is the same this week at 16 active listings. There are a ton of condo townhouses still available. Eight hundred thousand to a million is down from 34 to 27 active listings. Most of the sales we had this week were in this price point but 27 is still a lot for this price point. One to 1.5 million finally dropped under 50 listings. So it went from 52 to 48 active listings. It’s a price point that is struggling and we’re seeing a lot of price reductions in this price point because people are just not willing to spend as much right now. That pocket is moving slowly but even slower is 1.5 million plus. That price point went from 25 to 26 active listings and we aren’t seeing many sales here. I think there’s maybe one house that’s sold conditionally in that price point and the rest are just sitting. It’s definitely a struggling price point right now. 

Acton went up from 27 to 30 active listings this week. That is still very high for Acton but most of the properties that are for sale are listed for less than a million dollars. There are actually some really nice properties and you can get a lot more for your money in Acton than in Georgetown in this market. When prices start to come down in Georgetown, they REALLY start to come down in Acton. This is a market where we start to see the difference between Georgetown and Acton so if you’re interested in Acton, take a look because there are some really interesting properties there right now. Glen Williams remained the same at ten. Limehouse remained the same at one, and the rural market is down slightly from 45 to 43. That is still a lot of properties in the rural market.

This week overall has followed the trends we’ve been seeing and I think we will continue to see it into the new year. We shouldn’t get a huge influx of new listings and sellers will continue to come off the market, especially in December because people want to enjoy the holidays. The big question will be whether or not we continue to see sales in the coming weeks. We’ve had strong sales over these past two weeks and buyers are purchasing properties so I will be watching this closely. I do think we will end the year with high inventory, especially compared to last year, and we are still waiting to hear what will happen with interest rates. If they can remain then hopefully the market will pick up a bit but if they increase again we could be in trouble. So, we’ll see what happens. Have a great week!