Here’s How Much House Prices Have Fallen in Halton
Published May 23, 2019 at 8:32 pm
Anyone who is looking to purchase a home in Oakville, Burlington, Milton or the GTA knows that they’re dealing with a challenging market defined by high prices and limited inventory.
Anyone who is looking to purchase a home in Oakville, Burlington, Milton or the GTA knows that they’re dealing with a challenging market defined by high prices and limited inventory.
What people might not realize, however, is that the Fair Housing Plan, which was introduced by the former Liberal government of Ontario shortly after house prices peaked in 2017, has had a measurable effect on real estate prices.
The plan contained a 16-part set of measures designed to balance the Ontario housing market by cooling rampant price growth (in winter of 2017, the average price of a detached in the 905 home crept past $1 million) managing speculators (by implementing a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers and investors), and boosting rental supply.
“The changes had an immediate psychological impact on the market. Local real estate boards noted a large influx of listings in the following months, as skittish sellers looked to cash in before the market went soft. As a result, many housing markets within the province experienced double-digit per cent price and sales declines, especially among higher-priced single-family home types,” Penelope Graham, managing editor, Zoocasa, wrote in a recent blog post.
Now, things are a little different under the current Conservative government. Beyond dialling back rent controls to apply only to units created before November 15, 2018, the government has shifted its focus to creating more housing via its Housing Supply Action Plan.
Another government measure affecting the housing market? The federal mortgage stress test that requires borrowers to qualify at a rate of roughly 2 per cent higher than their actual mortgage.
Now, two years after the introduction of the FHP, Zoocasa decided to find out how the dust settled across various Ontario markets.
To find out, Zoocasa sourced sold home prices and sales-to-new-listings ratios (SNLR) from various local boards across the province for April 2019 and compared it to 2017 data from the same month.
You can see the price changes in the graphic below:
In Burlington, a home that cost $752,459 in 2017 costs about four per cent less now.
In Brampton, the April 2017 home price of $718,782 has dipped six per cent.
In April 2017, the average home price in Mississauga (all home types combined) sat at $767,283. Home prices have since dropped about four per cent.
But the Halton and Peel regions weren’t hit hardest by the changes.
Graham says the numbers reveal some municipalities – especially those in higher-priced York Region – have sustained steep declines in prices and considerable change in buying conditions over the two-year period.
According to the data, Newmarket has absorbed the most significant declines in sale price from April 2017, declining 30 per cent to $725,710 – a dramatic dip below the $1-million mark that used to be the norm in that market.
The city of Aurora experienced the second-largest price decline of 30 per cent, also dipping below $1 million to an average of $888,387.
Richmond Hill rounds out the markets with the steepest drops, as the average price fell 27 per cent to $1,016,216.
Other places have seen price growth.
Zoocasa says that flat sales in the Windsor-Essex region have put upward pressure on prices, which have increased by 25 per cent to $343,956.
It’s a similar scenario for London homes for sale, which have experienced hot price growth with average home values up 19 per cent to $429,058.
The Ottawa real estate market, which has been one of the top performing regions in recent months, remains untouched by any correction with prices and sales both up by a robust 10 per cent.
Will you be buying in Halton this year?
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