September 15th 2020
Market Overview - August 2020
As of this writing the actual sales figures are not in from the Niagara Association of Realtors. The sense however from being immersed in the market is that August continues strong both in number of sales and in average residential sale price. Normally the market tends to moderate slightly as summer comes to an end, and that may be the case again, but if so, the numbers I suspect will not show much of a slowdown from July and will certainly be up from August 2019.
To illustrate what I mean, lets take a look at the sales figures reported from the Realtors Association of Hamilton Burlington.
While we haven’t been monitoring the sales data month-by-month, we can see certain significant trends emerging from the report. First, note that 1,261 sales were registered in August 2020. So seasonally adjusted we see we are on a consistent track and continuing significantly stronger than 2019 when COVID wasn’t an issue. But now look at prices. Consider the four largest markets being recorded: Hamilton Centre, Hamilton Mountain, Stoney Creek and Burlington. And let’s compare average sale prices this year to last: Hamilton Centre $473,511 compared to $398,478 last year, an increase of 18.8%, Hamilton Mountain $598,271 compared to $494,885, an increase of 20.9%, Stoney Creek $703,727 compared with $551,329 in August 2019, an increase of 27.6% and Burlington $855,483 compared to $759,977 a year ago. That’s an increase year-over-year of 12.6%.
Speaking of price, and what’s been happening over the past while, the Canadian Real Estate Association tracks average prices in select markets across the country over the past 5 years. Have a look.
If we look at todays average price and compare it to 5 years ago, we see significant differences across the country. The Prairie Provinces actually show a drop in average sale price from 5 years ago, while the rest of the country shows increases in at least the double digits. And the strongest market in the country when it comes to price gains over the past 5 years is right here in Niagara with an increase of 88.48% seconded by the Fraser Valley at 74.92% and in third place Hamilton Burlington at 66.03%.
So even without the actual sales data for Niagara available for August, I think it’s safe to say that the solid gains we’ve been recording in the past are still very much a reality, and Niagara remains at the forefront.