If interest rates begin to drop early in the new year, as some experts predict, it will be welcome news for the real estate market in Sarnia where sales slowed in November.
Real eState
Sarnia-area real estate market slows in November
If interest rates begin to drop early in the new year, as some experts predict, it will be welcome news for the real estate market in Sarnia where sales slowed in November.
“It was a little bit slower in November, certainly,” said association president Rob Longo.
What is a typical slowdown in the final months of the year “has been compounded” by higher interest rates, he said.
The Bank of Canada, which had been increasing interest rates to battle inflation, held its benchmark lending rate at five per cent earlier this month. It was the bank’s third consecutive hold announcement after a series of increases beginning in early 2022 when the rate sat at 0.25 per cent.
Longo said buyers “are still out there” and activity among properties “under the $500,000 price point” remained busy locally in November.
The impact of higher interest rates on mortgage payments has “really slowed that upper market,” he said.
Interest rates will continue to be “the big thing” for real estate in 2024, “but going in the other direction,” Longo said.
“We’re expecting now some softening on the interest rates, certainly in the first half or even first quarter of next year, which I think is really going to push the market again,” he said.
“A lot of the economists are now predicting that we’re going to start to see decreases as soon as February, but certainly into the spring, for sure.”
Even with the recent slowing of activity in the local market, the median house price has remained “extremely steady,” Longo said.
“We’re seen that sitting right about $490,000 pretty much for the last year,” he said. “It has been extremely stable and predictable which is a good thing.”
Sarnia home prices are lower than in communities around it, including London, Strathroy, Kitchener-Waterloo and Chatham-Kent, Longo said.
“They’re all higher and sometimes quite a bit higher . . . That makes Sarnia-Lambton very attractive,” he said.
The number of houses on the market in the Sarnia area continued to grow in November and properties were listed for an average of 30 days before selling, which is longer than it has been in the last few years, Longo said.
Locally, the market had an estimated 5.2 months of inventory in November.
The “six-month mark” is typically when it will begin to transition into “more of a buyers’ market,” he said.
With files from the Financial Post
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TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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