If you’re expecting to sell your home within a few days of listing it, or expecting to get multiple offers, then it might be time to change your expectations.
That’s the advice the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors is giving out with its latest data on local home sales.
February’s numbers show the market continuing to step back from the heights of 2016 and 2017, with both sale volume and price increases leveling off.
The association recorded 377 home sales in February – a steep drop from the 474 sales in February 2017 and 455 sales in February 2016, but more than were seen in any other February in the past decade.
The price data may paint a more telling picture. The average sale price was up a little more than three per cent year-over-year, hitting $478,801. From February 2016 to February 2017, the average sale price increased by nearly 28 per cent. The median sale price was nearly flat, going from $435,000 to $436,143.
The average price rising more than the median price could suggest that high-end home sales played a bigger part in the market last month than they did one year earlier.
KWAR president Tony Schmidt says the cooldown in the market is likely due to new restrictions on buyers from the federal government.
Detached homes sold for an average price of $577,609 – a five per cent increase year-over-year – while apartment-style condos sold for an average of $265,144, townhouses for an average of $386,515, and semi-detached homes for an average of $391,628.
On average, homes that sold in February had been on the market for 22 days.
“We still have some homes that are selling in short order and with multiple offers, but others are taking longer and multiple offers are no longer the rule,” Schmidt said in a press release.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors handles real estate transactions for Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.
