The Sarnia-area’s real estate market finished 2021 with both the highest sales volume and lowest number of active listings in its history.
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The Sarnia-area’s real estate market finished 2021 with both the highest sales volume and lowest number of active listings in its history.
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The Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board reported a total of more than $ 959 million in sales for the past year, a record amount “bolstered” by the increase in home prices, said board president Rob Longo.
“The median price ended the year at $ 440,000, which was up about 25 per cent over last year,” he said.
The local market saw similar price growth the previous year, Longo noted.
He added “more of the same” is expected in 2022 but “not necessarily quite as high in terms of the percentage increase in the prices.”
Longo said he’s currently expecting prices in the coming year to grow in the “15 to 20 per cent range” and “might not get to 25 per cent again.”
The inventory of properties for sale is down “significantly” in the local market, Longo said.
Active listings dropped about 46 per cent to 60 listings in December, and local inventory was already low to begin with, he said.
“The number of listings just seems to continue to decline, so we’ve really got to try and dig ourselves out of that hole,” Longo said.
In 2021, houses in the Sarnia area typically sold for 107 per cent of their asking price and were on the market for only eight days.
There was less than a month’s supply of inventory on average throughout last year, compared to 2.5 months in 2016.
“The key really to unlocking that is going to be the creation of more housing units,” Longo said.
Making that happen will involve municipalities “unlocking more residential land” for development, he said.
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“That’s what we need.”
Longo said there are “plenty of local builders and developers that are just champing at the bit to try find some development land here.”
He said there’s “some good development coming through” this year to finish off subdivisions in Rapids Parkway in Sarnia, as well as developments in Petrolia and Camlachie, “but we could still sustain a whole lot more.”
That includes additional new subdivisions, as well as higher-density apartment and condo buildings, Longo said.
More supply would help create “a more balanced market,” he said.
“This as low as we’ve ever been in terms of the number of listings,” Longo said.
Longo said the industry is continuing to operate as it has been through the pandemic following the recent moves by the provincial government in response to growing COVID-19 caseloads.
“Real estate has been deemed an essential industry,” he said. “We aren’t doing any public open houses and we’re taking our precautions, the same way we have been for the last two years in terms of showings.”
Longo said something noticed during previous lockdowns has been an increase in interest in the real estate market.
“The more time we’re spending at home, and the more time the kids are at home, the more time parents are at home working” families “start to look around and think, ‘Maybe we need a different use of space or we need more space, ”he said.