Hamilton market shows signs of balance for first time in a decade
Average home price in Hamilton up nearly four per cent over 2023
Peak real estate season has arrived — and with it signs of the first balanced market in a decade, an area realtors’ association says.
Recent growth in housing inventory in Hamilton and surrounding areas is contributing to a “return to more balanced conditions,” Julie Sergi, president-elect of the Realtors’ Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB), said in a release on Tuesday.
“For the first time in years, we are not entering the spring market with limited supply,” she said.
Inventory levels have increased by 28 per cent over March of last year, when levels were “exceptionally low.”
This trend could suggest a balanced market, which generally occurs when supply and demand are similar, is on the horizon — something RAHB says the region hasn’t seen since 2014.
The growing stability follows years of turbulence, with real estate prices skyrocketing during the pandemic and plummeting in its wake.
Meanwhile, prices in the region have also risen, with the residential average up 5.8 per cent over last year, according to the RAHB. Though still much higher than prepandemic numbers, RAHB said, prices remain below the 2022 “peak,” when Hamilton homes were going for an average of over $1 million.
In March, the average sale price for a residential property in Hamilton was $826,462, a 3.9 per cent increase over $800,584 the previous year, the April 2 report reads.
The average price in March for the region, which includes Burlington, Haldimand and parts of Niagara, was $902,958.
In the first quarter of 2024, real estate activity in east Hamilton, Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster and Glanbrook increased “which offset pullbacks in other parts of Hamilton,” the report reads. Change in average home price also differed by region, from a yearover-year increase of 39.4 per cent in Flamborough to a decline of 14.2 per cent in Waterdown.
Meanwhile, inventory gains of up to 106 per cent were seen across the city, for an average of 57 per cent growth over last year.
“New listings rose for the third month in a row,” the report reads.
Hamilton’s trend mirrors that of the region, which had two months’ worth of inventory at the end of March, an increase over last year, but a decrease from the last few months of 2023.
“It’s still early in the year,” Sergi warned, noting that buyers may be waiting for lending rates to drop.