Housing market cools in August in Oakville, Burlington, Milton

The housing market in Burlington, Milton, Oakville and Halton Hills continues to cool as economic uncertainty, high interest rates, and summer holidays resulted in a decline in home sales and prices in August for the Greater Toronto Area.

According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), overall home sales were six per cent lower than last August with 5,294 homes trading hands. This marks a one per cent increase from July, indicating buyer interest is still maintained.

“More balanced market conditions this summer compared to the tighter spring market resulted in selling prices hovering at last year’s levels and dipping slightly compared to July,” said TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer.

“As interest rates continued to increase in May, after a pause in the winter and early spring, many buyers have had to adjust their offers in order to qualify for higher monthly payments. Not all sellers have chosen to take lower than expected selling prices, resulting in fewer sales.”

In Halton, the number of active listings in Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills improved by 7.97 per cent in August, up to 1,477 available properties.

“Although this is still seasonally low, this is a good signal for buyers entering the market this fall,” said a spokesperson for Zoocasa, a full-service brokerage that offers advanced online search tools to empower Canadians with the data and expertise they need to make more successful real estate decisions.

Halton Region buyer interest was still slightly stalled as the number of sales and new listings both declined in August. 554 properties traded hands, down 1.95 per cent and 1,231 new listings came to market, a decrease of 0.16 per cent month-over-month.

In Halton, Burlington and Oakville had the highest number of sales, at 185 and 183 respectively. However, the average price also declined in each of these markets, while it increased by a staggering 12.97 per cent in Halton Hills and just 0.40 per cent in Milton.

Homes are spending six more days on the market, for an average of 29 days. In Oakville, the average property days on the market have exceeded a month, up to 32 days.