An Opportunity for Real Estate Buyers (finally) in Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington.
Real estate has been the “talk of the town” for several years now. I was ordering a coffee this week and overheard a couple talking about an offer that they had submitted and were fingers crossed they were successful. You can’t go anywhere without someone mentioning Real Estate.
Real Estate flourishes when rates are low, and confidence is up. If you read some of the media reports it looks complex, however, I find that when the right elements are in place, Buyers are active and Sellers are on the move.
So, what the heck is going on currently. The media is predicting a downturn, the banks are instructing people to be cautious, and the sold signs seem to be taking a bit longer to appear.
Trends tend to be somewhat predictable. Notice how over the past month the daily bombardment of Covid news has been replaced? It seems that there is a lot going on now that is distracting people in the Real Estate market here in Durham Region. There is a war on the go, rates are up marginally, we have a new governmental direction that sees Real Estate as a target. Plenty of media to distract people. Let’s dig in to see what is really going on.
Town Jan/22 Feb/22 March/22
Oshawa $1,035,000 $1,128,000 $1,100,000
Whitby $1,259,000 $1,467,000 $1,402,000
Clarington $1,109,000 $1,279.000 $1,150,000
It is easy to see that the values have slipped over the past month. This can be explained by simple “supply and demand.” We started the year off with 18 homes for sale in Oshawa and as of the end of March, the number had increased to 179. Whitby increased from 11 to 122 and Clarington from 21 to 140. Sales increased over the past 3 months, however as inventory jumps up and more selection is available for Buyers the market tends to cool and the values relax. Another metric is looking when the last time the values were where they are currently. This gives some context to how long the upward value increases have been around.
Town Average price Last month with the same average price as today
Oshawa $1,100,000 $1,128,000 January/22
Whitby $1,402,000 $1,467,000 January/22
Clarington $1,150,000 $1,109,000 December/21
What this shows is that the values have lost a small amount of the gains that have happened over the first quarter of 2022, however, Oshawa has seen a $250,000 increase over the past year.
I had a funny call with a colleague yesterday, who said everyone she has been talking with thinks their home is worth a million dollars. Well, the numbers show that there might be some truth to those comments. However, when you look a little deeper you notice that the more “affordable” homes, for example, in Oshawa have slipped more in this segment of the market than the upper range. Semi-detached homes in Oshawa dropped from $950,000 to $850,000 over the past month. In fact, we saw over 30% of all semi-detached homes sell last month at $800,000 or less. That is $150,000 less than the average a month ago!
This is your time if you have been a buyer in waiting. Prices have come down significantly, there are more listings to choose from and possibly a bit of wiggle room when you find the right home.
If you are planning on buying or a Seller still planning on getting the highest value in this market, experience has never been more important. I can be reached at lindsay@buyselllove.ca