Number of local homes for sale increases; average prices down 23% from last year

The number of local homes sold increased in March as the spring market begins.

The Brantford Regional Real Estate Association reports 176 homes sold last month, up from 138 in February 2022.

“Spring is known for its rise in the real estate market and this month’s statistics show that trend is holding true,” said David DeDominicis, association president.

Total inventory of houses for sale continues to expand. The Brantford-Brant market had 824 listings at the end of March, compared to 777 in February and 550 in March 2022. Total inventory includes all property types, from residential to commercial.

DeDominicis said the local market remains steady, with 13 Brantford and 42 County of Brant homes sold in March at an average price for detached homes of $692,000 and $946,000 respectively.

The average cost for detached homes in Brantford and area has plummeted over the past year by 23 per cent, from $983,000 in March 2022 to $756,000.

Average days on the market remain in the double digits, although the spring market has decreased the length slightly, moving from 34 days in February to 24 days in March.

That is a prolonged timeframe, said DeDominics, compared to 2022 when houses were on the market for an average of nine days.

“Again, we continue to see a growth in the supply of homes for Brantford and Brant County,” he said. “However, we still have work to do and it’s clear more supply is needed to meet the needs of our community. With growth from a 248 residential inventory at the end of March 2022 to the current 464, we see promising signs that more progress is coming.”

The Canadian Press is reporting that realtors are expecting Canadians to move off the housing market’s sidelines this spring.

They expect potential buyers to start hunting for a home because the Bank of Canada has eased up on interest rate hikes.

The quick succession of increases eroded buying power as borrowing costs rose and sent prices falling, discouraging sellers from listing their homes.

With Canadian Real Estate Association data showing average prices have dropped 19 per cent from their February peak of $816,578 to $662,437 last month and BMO Capital Markets’ chief economist predicting they will bottom out after falling 20 to 25 per cent, realtors see many edging toward a purchase once more.

“We got a flood of buyers in January, in February and we still are getting more and more and we started seeing multiple offers return and bully offers return,” said Michelle Gilbert, a Toronto broker with Sage Real Estate Ltd.

“We’ve started getting calls where buyers are just like ‘I think I’ll just adjust what I want, but I don’t want to miss my opportunity.’

There are currently two months of active inventory in Brantford-Brant, a slight increase from one month of inventory at the same time in 2022. The number of months of inventory is the calculation that shows the number of months it would take to turn over the current housing supply at the current rate of sales activity.

The Brantford Regional Real Estate Association serves Brantford, Paris, Burford, Mount Pleasant, Oakland, Scotland, St. George and Six Nations of the Grand River.

Locally, the highest average home prices last month were in Brant County’s Ward 1, which includes St. George ($1.1 million). That was followed by Brant’s Ward 4, which includes Scotland and Burford ($984,000); Ward 3, which includes Paris ($802,000); and Ward 2, which also includes Paris ($691,000).

The highest average sale price for a home in Brantford last month was in Ward 1 ($808,000), followed by Ward 3 ($670,000), Ward 2 ($658,000), Ward 4 ($653,000), and Ward 5 ($505,000).