As for other stats in the region, data posted on Realoshopy’s website show that the average sale price for homes in Halton last month was up 11 per cent to just over $930,000 over the same period last year. The number of sales in March went up 7.5 per cent over the same month last year with 892 homes sold.
When it comes to supply, there were 1,556 homes for sale in March 2020, a decrease of 0.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) said in a news release that while there’s growth in the beginning of March, activity slowed in the latter half due to coronavirus.
“New listings and sales have been affected by the onset of COVID-19, but the average price continues to increase. We will have to wait for the April data to see the full impact on our market area,” said RAHB CEO Carol Ann Burrell.
A more pessimistic outlook was given by Robert Hogue, a senior economist with RBC, who provides analysis and forecast on Canadian housing market.
As posted on RBC’s website, he warns that the country’s housing market “will slow to a crawl this spring.”
The pandemic, he wrote, will be “a temporary shock” and that housing activity “will resume once the health crisis comes under control and authorities lift containment measures,” though there’s no telling of the timing and speed of the recovery.
Zurini said amid the crisis there’s no doubt that realtors had to change the way they do business.
“Being an essential service, we’ve really upped our game on the safety of our clients, buyers and sellers,” he noted, where more stringent measures are being taken in terms of questionnaires for in-person showings – as well increasing efforts in sanitization and consideration for social distancing.
Over the short term, Zurini believes that people are still going to be putting their property on the market. But if the lockdown continues for several more months, there might be fewer people doing so.
“But we haven’t seen it so far,” he said.
“There’s a lot of vibrancy still in the market.”
His advice for people who plan to sell their homes is to contact their local realtors to help “interpret the data and trends and make the right decision.”
