Here is where we are currently – in the past month, this has been the activity. (Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington detached homes for the month of April)

Total homes available: 1,009

Homes sold April/25: 304

Price reductions: 8

When you look at where we began in 2025, we had 446 homes for sale. This shows that the inventory has more than doubled. Last month, we had 307 detached homes sell, and in April 2024, there were 383 homes sold during the same month. Conclusion – we have more homes for sale and fewer sales. Is this termed a “Buyer’s Market?” Let’s take a look.

The definition of a Buyers market is one where there is are 4 – 5 months of available inventory. This means that if no other homes were listed for sale, it would take 4 – 5 months to sell all of the current inventory. Currently, our average time to sell is 17 days. Herein lies the confusion; the number of homes for sale indicates a buyer’s market, and the fact that they are selling in under 3 weeks indicates a Seller’s market.

The other metric that adds to the confusion is in the past week, almost half of all homes sold, sold for full or asking price. In fact, 8 homes sold for full price or over asking price above the $1,000,000 mark. 

It should be of no surprise that with the amount of distractions Canada has been facing over the past 4 months, people (mostly Buyers) may be a bit distracted, and this has resulted in slowing sales.

The Task Force on Housing and Affordability, which was completed by the Provincial Government in 2022, started the report off with this phrase: “We are in a housing crisis.” Since then, there has been an inflow of residents to Ontario, numbering 1,556,000. One of the hottestly debated questions has been, “Where are all of these newcomers going to live if we are in a housing crisis?” Since the beginning of 2022 there have been a total of 260,000 new homes created here in our province. Assuming there are 3 residents per home. This leaves 240,000 people without proper housing. My thoughts are, we are still in a housing crisis.

Not only this, the average detached home in Durham Region has dropped from the beginning of 2022 until now by over $400,000, and the mortgage rates have fallen drastically.

This brings us back to the market today in Durham Region. We have more inventory than we have Buyers, and this has been constant for about a year. Homes sell based on the certainty of investment, stable mortgage rates and a buoyant job market. Currently, we have low rates and low unemployment, indicating that the market should be booming. However, the uncertainty of our political environment has been a distraction large enough to overshadow the need to move, it seems.

Since January, we have had our Prime Minister resign, a leadership contest, a provincial and federal election and have been threatened by the USA administration. No wonder people are distracted and feeling “uncertain” about the future.

I penned a blog months ago about “early adopters” and described them as people who see opportunity and move before the market moves in a positive direction. This is what I see happening currently. We have excellent mortgage rates, low prices and are in a housing crisis. These early adopters are the Buyers purchasing now, and once the trends return, pushing prices up to values dramatically higher than today, they will be the winners.

If you want to join in on the “winning,” I can be reached at lindsay@buyselllove.ca or 905-743-56555. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.