Pandemic housing prices continue to rise in February
Pandemic housing prices continued rising in the HamiltonBurlington area in February — but relief is coming for homeseekers competing for “ultralow inventory,” said the local realtors’ association.
The Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington recorded 1,271 residential sales in February and an average sale price of $848,719 across the region. That’s a 7.7 per cent price increase in average price compared to January and a nearly 30 per cent hike compared to February 2020.
In Hamilton alone, the average residential sale price in February was $769,774, up 30 per cent over the same month in 2020. For detached homes, the average price was $843,374. The association mapped monthly trends on its website.
That continued spike in price is due in part to “ultralow inventory” during a COVID-19 pandemic that convinced some would-be sellers to stay out of the market, said association president Donna Bacher in a release.
But Bacher added February also broke a 10-year record for new listings, a trend she suggested should continue as Hamilton gradually emerges from COVID-linked lockdowns and related control measures.
“Buyers should start to see more selection and a bit less competition,” she said.
Hamilton’s scorching real estate prices are a problem for more than would-be home buyers.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggested in December Hamilton is vulnerable to a housing bubble due to home “overvaluation” driven in part by a pandemic exodus of condo dwellers from Toronto.
Ever-rising property prices have also worsened a rental housing crisis that has left 5,000 individuals or families on an affordable housing wait list and pushed other tenants out of Hamilton altogether.
City council is expected to consider a report this summer on whether to tax owners of long-vacant residential homes in an effort to dissuade property speculators from exacerbating the housing crisis.