Housing market sees ‘significant surge’ as restrictions lifted
Home sales in the Hamilton-Burlington area increased by more than 50 per cent in June
Hamilton’s housing market is heating up again after it cooled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the past month, we have seen a significant surge in buyer demand, but sellers have taken more time to bring their listings to the market,” said Joe Ferrante, broker of record for Hamilton’s Royal LePage State Realty, in a July 9 media release.
“The result has been significant upward pressure on prices.”
The average price of a home in Hamilton increased by 9.1 per cent to $592,059 in the second quarter, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey.
Nationally, the median price increased by 6.8 per cent from this period last year.
The median price of a two-storey home in the city increased by 9.7 per cent from the same period last year to $616,992.
The median price of a condominium rose by just over 10 per cent to $414,110.
Ferrante said a number of factors have contributed to the rapidly warming market.
“I think overall the surge is coming from just the very simple fact that it’s easier to be a buyer in today’s market versus being a seller,” Ferrante told The Spectator.
“You want to buy, you put on your mask, put on your gloves, bring your sanitizer and narrow down the houses you want to see.”
Sellers, however, may have dozens of people going through their home in a short period of time.
Ferrante said growth in demand could also be attributed to low mortgage rates, a desire to buy before the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation tightened its lending standards July 1, or simply carry-over customers from the pause caused by the pandemic.
“The market was pretty solid in March,” he said. “Then all of a sudden the brakes got put on ... so this may be a continuation of that as well.”
While there has always been a “healthy” demand from Toronto buyers, Ferrante said interest in Hamilton’s housing market from customers outside the city has “significantly increased.”
“People are working from home or have been relegated to work from home now and need to get into (Toronto) maybe once or twice a week,” he said.
“If you were in Hamilton and you don’t need to get into the office every day, then why not live in an outlying area where you have a little more comfort?”
With demand high, supply is struggling to keep up.
“We are probably back at, let’s say, pre-COVID inventory,” he said. “But even with the listing inventory coming up, we’re still seeing more buyers than typical.”
The number of sales in the Hamilton-Burlington area were up by 53 per cent in June over the previous month, the Realtor’s Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) said in a July 3 report.
“With the reopening of the province, and the increased confidence in both the economy and the health of our communities, we are seeing higher activity in both sales and new listings,” said RAHB CEO Kathy Della-Nebbia in a media release.
About 1,300 residential properties in the area were sold through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system in June.
Spring is typically the hottest season for real estate, she said, but this year increased activity may continue through the summer and into the fall.
Despite a sharp decrease in both home sales and new listings in April and May, DellaNebbia said month-to-month prices have “held steady.”
“If Ontario’s recovery from COVID-19 continues, we shouldn’t see a decrease,” she said. “However, we are cautious that any relapse or a second wave could slow activity and affect average price.”