It has been quite a year. The administration in the USA changed on January 20th. Immediately there was a threat of tariffs on all Canadian products that was slated to begin on February 1st. As we approached the first of February, the tariffs were paused until the beginning of March.
You would have to live without a tv, internet or newspapers if you were not overwhelmed with negative reporting predicting a complete market crash. Again, as we have seen many times before, the reality is much different from what we read from the “experts” and “pundits.” Here is a breakdown of how Real Estate sales have responded to the threat of tariffs.
Sales in Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington weekly since January 1 2025.
January 1 – 7 • 36 sales
January 8 – 15 • 73 sales
January 16 – 23 • 88 sales
January 24 – 31 • 84 sales
February 1 – 7 • 78 sales
It appears that the threats of a collapse have not only ceased to materialize, but the number of homes sold stayed constant throughout the month of January. If you break down the sales over the previous week, all homes sold in Oshawa sold for an average of 4% over the asking price. Whitby homes sold for the same over asking price average and Clarington was the top area over the part week at 8% over asking prices. (In Clarington this works out to just under $80,000 over the average asking price when a home is sold.)
For the first 2 weeks of January, the average detached home in Oshawa sold for $792,000, and by month’s end, the average detached home was selling for $851,500. That is an increase of $59.500! With the “experts” predicting a downturn, Buyers have a different idea – buy now with rates and expectations for them to drop even further. Buyers are sharp. They understand when rates drop, independent of the political upheaval, values increase.
If we compare January 2024 to this year, you can understand why Buyers are feeling certainty in the market. In January 2024 Oshawa had 112 detached homes sold and this year we had 104 homes sold in January. The big difference for Buyers is increased inventory. Currently we have more than double the amount of homes for sale than at this time last year. Again, double the inventory, lower mortgage rates and affordable prices. A year ago the average home sold for $50,000 more in Oshawa than it sells for currently.
With any lopsided market, “actors” figure things out very quickly. As the messages get sent out that homes are selling over asking prices, the Sellers will list their homes for sale, hoping to catch the wave of buyers, and typically, this will slow down activity with a larger pool of Sellers hoping to attract Buyers.
3 of our transactions this year were with Sellers. None of the homes took over a week to sell with one of them selling off market before the property was advertised for sale. We ended up with 6 offers in total on our 3 properties with two of the homes being sold to investors looking to renovate and either rent the properties or place them back for sale.
Homes are being listed for sale, being sold and the spring rush is on. Time to turn the negative news off, jump on to www.buyselllove.ca and start shopping for a new home. The timing couldn’t be better.
If you are curious about how we just sold a home for $35,000 more than a recent sale of a similar model/same builder I can be reached at lindsay@buyselllove.ca or 905-743-5555.
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