Halton Hills Housing Update - Ep.222

Welcome to this week's Halton Hills housing update! So, summer is almost over and it’s been a weird one. In Georgetown this week, we only had four sales. That is an extremely low number and the last time we saw sales this low was last fall when the market was absolutely dead. I’m really hoping this was just an off week because it’s the end of summer, especially since last week was so positive. The other bad news is that we had 14 new listings this week, which is just insane! In Acton there was one sale and one new listing. Glen Williams and Limehouse had no new listings and one sale, and the rural market had no sales and no new listings. When looking at properties that terminated and re-listed, we had three properties that re-listed at the exact same pricing, which we haven’t been seeing much of. One property tried an offer night that failed so they raised their price. Four properties decreased their price and nine exited the market and haven’t re-entered. So, the nine that exited is good news for sellers but it’s just not enough right now to make a big impact. Some of the ways we will get relief in our market is if new listings slow down, homes terminate, and sales continue to happen. If you don’t need to be selling your house right now, I don’t think it’s a good time to be doing it. 

Looking at active inventory, all of Halton Hills is up slightly to 214. Despite the huge gap in sales and new listings, homes terminating really helped to keep us from skyrocketing. In Georgetown this week, we are up from 120 to 125 active listings. That is a pretty big jump in one week and we are creeping up to 140 again, which is where things really start to go wrong. Looking at our price points, under 800,000 is up from ten to 13 active listings. There is a ton available here and most of it is condo townhomes and apartments. Eight hundred thousand to a million is up slightly to 30 active listings this week. That is a lot in this price range and nothing seems to be selling very quickly. When the market picks back up I have a feeling this will be the price range to move the most. One to 1.5 million is up from 52 to 53 listings. This price point is super saturated but we did see a weirdly high number of sales over a million dollars in July. Finally, 1.5 million plus remained the same at 29. There are lots of listings there too and we haven’t seen many sales in this price range this month. It’s a tricky price point so if you get an offer that is even remotely close to what you want, I think it’s something you should really consider taking. 

Looking at Acton this week, Acton is down from 32 to 30 active listings thanks to some terminations, but that is still a lot in Acton. In previous years we’ve sat between six and 10, and even 11-15 was normal, but now we are at 30! Glen Williams is up slightly to seven, which is an okay number for there. Limehouse is down to seven which is extremely high for Limehouse given how small it is and the rural market is down from 47 to 45. 

So, this was a really bad sales week which just happened to follow a really good sales week. I’m hoping it was just a blip in the reporting and we have some stuff conditionally sold, but it’s just not a great time to be selling your house. On September 6th, we have another interest rate announcement. The hope, given the inflation numbers, is that will see another rate cut. That'll be the third one in a few months, and although we haven’t felt the benefits just yet, maybe this will be the boost buyers need to re-enter the market with confidence. If we start to see rates drop and inventory drop, I think prices will start to increase but I don’t think it will be a good back half of the year for sellers, just like last year and 2022 weren’t either. Going into the fall, I think prices will soften and there won’t be many sales, but I really hope I’m wrong! So, I’ll be back next week with August’s numbers. Have a great long weekend!