Bungalows in Waterloo Region saw their value rise by nearly 9 per cent in 2016, according to a new survey of local house prices – but that’s significantly smaller than the increases seen in two-storey homes and condos.
According to the Royal LePage House Price Survey, the region’s aggregate house price in the fourth quarter of 2016 was $390,715, or 12.9 per cent higher than it was one year earlier.
Two-storey homes saw their average value increase by 14 per cent, to $413,055, while bungalows jumped by 8.7 per cent, hitting $351,979.
Condo owners saw their homes’ values rise by 13.3 cent, to an average of $257,641.
In a press release, Keith Church – Royal LePage Grand Valley Realty’s broker of record – chalked up the increases to a combination of even faster-rising prices in the Greater Toronto Area, a strong economy driving interest in moving to Waterloo Region and few people wanting to move out of their homes.
“Many people in the west end of Toronto are selling their homes at historically high prices and moving to Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge to purchase a similar or larger house for a lower price,” he said.
“We have a number of interested buyers in the region but very few houses for sale.”
Those comments echo what local real estate agents were saying for most of 2016.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors, which looks after sales in all parts of the region except for Cambridge and North Dumfries, credited low inventory and a hot economy as the main factors driving a 10.8 per cent increase in house sale prices in 2016.
Church says he sees no reason why house prices won’t continue to rise at similar rates in 2017, as he believes sellers are content to “sit back and wait” for the value of their home to go up even further.
That’s different from the national picture, in which Royal LePage sees price increases beginning to soften in 2017.
