As house prices have skyrocketed in Waterloo Region, people in the real estate industry have said that low supply is a big reason behind the boom.
With more people looking to buy, the thinking goes, a lack of listings means that people looking to sell the few homes on the market are able to get more money for their homes.
If that’s the case, then April brought the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market a sign of a potential slowdown in price growth – and other signs that point to a very different outcome.
According to the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors, 985 residential properties in Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich were put up for sale in April.
That number is the highest seen locally in two years, which association president James Craig calls an “encouraging sign.”
Despite the increase in supply, homes were being snapped up faster than ever. The association says homes spent an average of 10 days on the market – down from 14 days in March, and 33 days in April 2016.
Prices also continued their upward climb, with the average sale price hitting $512,656 – a 40 per cent increase over April 2016, and the first time the average has topped $500,000. Detached homes sold for an average price of $594,453.
In total, 766 residential properties were sold in the area in April, up from 670 one year earlier. A bigger difference is visible in the number of properties still on the market at the end of the month – 652 in 2017, compared to 1,275 in 2016.
It was a similar situation in Cambridge and North Dumfries, where the Cambridge Association of Realtors says 234 residential units were sold.
The average sale price of a detached home was $539,135, while the average sale price of a freehold unit was $513,124. Both represent increases of more than 30 per cent over April 2016.
April was also the month in which the province announced a series of 16 measures aimed at cooling off the housing market.
Those measures include a 15 per cent tax to be levied on people who are not Canadian citizens, corporations or permanent residents and buy housing in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, which includes Waterloo Region, better efforts to understand whether speculation and tax avoidance are playing a role in the current situation, and several actions aimed at renters.
