Hamilton-Burlington home prices down from spring, still up from last summer
Kelly Bennett | CBC News | Posted: September 6, 2017 9:14 PM | Last Updated: September 6, 2017
Home prices in Hamilton and Burlington were up 14 per cent from last August, and there was a higher-than-average number of homes listed for sale last month, according to new numbers released Wednesday.
But there has been some slide in home prices since the spring frenzy.
Prices in August were lower than in April, when the local market hit a peak median price of $535,000. August's median price of $485,450 was 9.3 per cent down from that April mark.
The release from the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington showed an August market that was looking more balanced than the sellers-favouring markets of years past. It shows more homes for sale, but fewer sales and homes staying on the market longer.
Some of that change began in April and May, after the provincial government stepped in with some measures aimed at cooling the housing market in Toronto and surrounding cities.
The psychology of buyers and sellers is changing, too. More people are listing their homes for sale, and some sellers are finding they have overshot with their asking price.
There were 1,748 new homes listed, about 4 per cent higher than the 10-year average.
Sales were down 18.2 per cent from August 2016.
Despite the cooling since spring, in a year-over-year comparison, prices were up.
"There had been speculation that with more listings on the market and fewer sales, prices would decrease as a result," said the association's CEO, George O'Neill. "That is not the experience in our market area – at least not so far."
The median price of all residential properties sold — both detached houses and condos — was $485,450. That's up 14 per cent from August 2016.
Homes sat on the market an average of 33 days before selling in August, an increase of 22 per cent from the 27 days they took on average last August to sell.
At the end of the month, there were more than 2,500 homes on the market, which is 50 per cent higher than the listings on the market at the end of August in 2016.
Condo median prices were up by a larger amount year-over-year. The median price of condos sold in August was $405,000, up 21 per cent from August 2016.