President Donna Mathewson is shown in the board room at the Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board. Paul Morden/Postmedia Network
Mild weather is helping fuel an unseasonably busy real estate market in Sarnia-Lambton, where the $43.8-million in total sales recorded in February was up 23 per cent higher than the same month in 2019.
The Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board said there were 127 home sales locally last month, which is up 15 per cent from February 2017.
“Some of it is weather related,” said board president Donna Mathewson about the market that has remained active during the early months of the year.
“It really hasn’t been a winter so people aren’t burrowing down.
The value of residential sales in the community is up 16 per cent, year-to-date, in 2020 but that isn’t “out of whack” compared to the growth in recent years Mathewson said.
The average home price in February was $355,803, locally.
“That’s creeping up,” Mathewson said.
The local average price had been sitting in the “$330,000s” for a period of time, she said.
The lack of homes on the market “is boosting up the sale prices, because there are so many buyers,” Mathewson said.
That means that homes in “hot” $200,000 to $400,000 price range can sell after only a week or two on the market, she said. “Some of them are three days.”
There were 158 homes listed for sale locally in February, which is in line with the number in 2019.
More listings typically begin appearing on the real estate market beginning in March when winter is winding down.
“People want their homes to show the best – they don’t want to move in the winter time,” Mathewson said.
“March, April, May and into June is the busiest time of year,” followed by the fall, she said.
Mathewson said the real estate industry is watching to see what happens with interest rates in the coming days, following the recent move by the Bank of Canada to lower its rate by .5 per cent in reaction to economic jitters caused by the novel coronavirus.
She said some banks had already lowered prime interest rates on mortgages.
“It’s fantastic right now for people who are buying,” Mathewson said. “We really thought, two or three years ago, we were going to see interest rates start to climb slowly.”
Instead, buyers are currently seeing rates of 2.6 per cent or 2.8 per cent on a five-year mortgage, Mathewson said.
New home construction remains “very strong” in the city and surrounding communities, including Corunna, Wyoming, Camlachie and Forest, she said.
Building permit numbers released by Sarnia City Hall show a total of seven new single-family home permits issued in January and February this year, compared to one permit at the same point in 2019.
The Ontario Real Estate Association released results this week of a recent survey that found 22 per cent of first-time home buyers in the province say they’re looking for a townhouse.
Townhouses are “a great place for them to start out,” in the Sarnia real estate market, Mathewson said. “They can get into them for less money.”
Prices for single-family homes have climbed out-of-reach for some buyers but townhouses are selling in the city, depending on their location, from $150,000 or less, and up, she said.
“Our townhouse sales here are doing really well.”
