Listings up but sales down for 2017

More homes were listed last year, but less people bought them.

That’s one of the take-aways from the 2017 real estate market in Hamilton-Burlington, a sign that a red-hot sellers’ market is transitioning into something more balanced.

The results released by the Realtors’ Association of HamiltonBurlington Friday show a 16.4 per cent increase in residential listings in 2017 compared to the previous year. Yet purchases declined by 6.0 per cent.

The increase in listings is interesting because it comes after years of scarce housing supply to meet a growing demand being partly fuelled by an exodus of GTA buyers to Hamilton.

“Essentially we saw more listings available last year and slightly less number of properties sold,” said board CEO George O’Neill. “It brought the market more into balance for buyers.”

However, even with the increasing supply, the average sale price — in Hamilton, Burlington and Grimsby — rose by 14.6 per cent, with the average reaching $569,285. Hamilton alone had a 16.3 per cent increase with the average price reaching $496,560. (That figure compares with a recent report from Royal Lepage that found a 22.9 per cent increase over 2017 with the average price in Hamilton reaching $554,399.)

O’Neill said a lot of the price push happened in the early part of 2017.

Each of the first four months of year, O’Neill said, had record sales and there were relatively few listings on the market.

“In April, however, we saw the first glimpse of a turnaround, when we had more listings than average come onto the market. That did not translate into immediate relief for the market, as we still had record sales for the month. It was after that point we began to see

higher than average new listings and lower than average sales,” he said.

O’Neill noted that average residential house sales price peaked in May at $618,868, with it ending the year at $569,285.

He believes the local market was responding to government measures to tax foreign buyers along with an expansion in rent controls.

O’Neill described 2017 as a “transitional” year with the market becoming less polarized in favour of sellers. He noted buyers no longer have to rush into purchases like they once did.