This week, we are taking a closer look at April’s home sales, prices, and the Premier’s plan for re-opening Ontario. Here’s what you need to stay in-the-know, whether you are a buyer, seller, or investor…
We wanted to update you on what is actually going on in the real estate market here in the Greater Hamilton area in light of the COVID-19 situation. We get many questions from both buyers as well as home sellers and wondering should I wait or should I proceed at this point? What does the market look like? We would like to show you the facts of what is actually going on and to be sure it is not business as usual.
There are about two-thirds fewer properties selling, there’s two-thirds fewer properties on the market as well. So, what does that actually mean to those thinking of buying or selling real estate? Well, the first thing we would like you to take a look at is to show you simply what is going on in the market so far this year.
This chart goes over the last 13 months of sales in the area and we want to point out to, the average days on market. How long does it take a home to sell now? If we take a look at March of 2019, last year, the average days on market was 39.8 days. Now, if we take a look at March 2020, the average days on market is 27.2 days to sell a home so that is significantly less. The other part of this chart we would like to show you is the first 25 days of April, shows you everything that has sold so far this month and you will also see the average days on market for the first 25 days of April has been 22 days on market. So, what we are continuing to see is a decline and continued to decline down to about 22 days on market.
Next thing we’d like to you to take a look is based upon the asking price and what homes ultimately are selling for. Are they selling above asking price or below asking price?
Here are the stats: March 2019, we saw that homes were selling for an average of 98.74% of asking price. March 2020 – homes sold for 101.7% of asking price. Now, the first several weeks of March were extremely strong and then the COVID-19 locked down, you know happened, so again at this point when March was so strong and what has happened in April, the first 25 days of April has been 98.92% of asking price so far more in line with what might be considered a traditional real estate market. Far fewer buyers are even willing to take a look at homes in person so we don’t have that number of buyers in the market and the normal scramble that we might have this time of year but homes are still selling.
In this chart, you will see the average price for homes in Hamilton, all prices include all types of homes within the Hamilton area. The average price was $456,000 last year, and as of March 2020, the average price was $508,753. This shows that is an 11.6% increase in return on your investment and shows you how much homes have appreciated in that period of time.
Take a look at this next chart where we can see that the average price has fallen somewhat in April, the average price for homes sold in April was $495,803. Once again, the first 25 days of April is what we’re focusing in on at this point and that shows about a 2.5% pull back on the price range within that period of time and again if we take a look back the first 25 days of April.
There is still a lot of unrest at this point as we know in the Hamilton/Halton area but this doesn’t mean we’ve hit the bottom and it doesn’t mean that things are going to go back to their normal the way that we’ve traditionally sold real estate. Things have changed, as far as the real estate landscape and how we can continue to market properties safely, how we can protect both the buyers as well as those who within the home. Some procedures we have taken include the use of PPE such as masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectants and gloves that we can utilize for walk-throughs where the seller will leave the lights on the doors open or the agent will just open the doors make sure that everything’s cleaned and safe. We have put in precautions to be able to, as safely as we can, be able to continue to show properties and be able to handle the needs of those during this period of time.
One more thing that we want you to be aware of, is the number of homes currently on the market in the Hamilton area right now. There is a total of 413 homes as of this moment for sale in the Greater Hamilton area. There have been 145 homes sold that have sold in the first 25 days of April, that’s well off the normal pace that we have but again number of homes down as well. This represents about 2.85 months on market of inventory, we call that the absorption rate. If there were no new homes on the market today it would take 2.85 months to be able to clean out the existing inventory. We use that in metric to be able to determine whether we are in a seller’s market or we are in a buyer’s market so at this point, anything under six months is heading toward a seller’s market so the actual market landscape for homes is again quite robust, still well off the pace that we had.
So, who’s in the market today? Those who really need to buy or sell. The number of appointments required to be able to sell a property, we tracked that through our company. Back in February, it took as many as 25 showings before a sale was recorded in our office. At this point, we’re anywhere between as low as 6 to 9 showings to be able to register or sale on property, on average. Again, it indicates a lot of strength in the smaller market. Obviously, these are just broad numbers.
If you are considering selling your house, what we’d like to do is be able to speak to you and be able to show some of the numbers specifically for your area, including the price range your home might be worth and discuss when is the right time to buy or sell property. We will also go over our procedures so we can safely sell your home including such things as virtual showings to be able to limit the exposure that you would have when people do come through your property and to be able to market effectively because that entire landscape also has changed. We will even show you how many buyers are currently looking to find a home just like yours. So, if you would like to speak to us you know personally either call our office that number 905-297-4885.
If you have your home on the market, yes things are completely different in so many ways and yet people do need to move and we are here to be able to facilitate that to do this in the safest manner as possible so feel free to contact us with any questions.
If you have any questions, please contact us directly or fill out the form below!
We wish you safety and health!
