Here’s another sign that Waterloo Region’s real estate boom may have passed its peak: For the first time in nearly two years, a month passed with fewer homes being sold than in the same month one year earlier.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors says 716 properties changed hands in Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich in June – a decrease of 3.2 per cent from the previous June.
While a much smaller year-over-year decline than the 37 per cent drop seen in Toronto, it is the first time the Kitchener-Waterloo area has seen such a decline since October 2015.
June was the fourth straight month in which more than 700 homes were sold in the area. Prior to this year, there had only ever been three months with more than 700 sales.
Realtor association president James Craig chalks the decline up to an increase in the number of homes being listed for sale. During the heights of the real estate boom, analysts were citing a lack of supply as the main factor behind high activity levels and fast-rising sale prices.
The number of newly listed residential properties rose to 1,083 in June, marking a nearly 29 per cent increase over one year earlier.
Realtors describe the flood of new listings as “an unprecedented surge of supply” – although as demand remains high, homes continue to be snapped up in a matter of weeks.
The average sale price in June was $465,772, representing an increase of nearly 20 per cent over June 2016. For detached homes, the average sale price hit $537,389.
Through the first half of 2017, there have been a total of 3,834 home sales in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, representing a nine per cent increase over the then-record-breaking levels of 2016.
