April 2022 Residential Real Estate Market Update for Windsor/Essex County
The statistics are now in from WECAR (The Windsor Essex County Association of REALTORS ®) for April 2022. What a difference a month makes! Our new average sale price is $692,759! That’s a 20.69% increase from this time a year ago but a decrease from last month (March 2022 avg price was $723,739!). *(The Median sale price for April 2022 was $640,218).
There were 1,051 new listings in March 2022 compared to 1,074 new listings in April 2022. This is up from last month and is an increase of 12.58% from the same time last year. There were 698 sales in March 2022 compared with 586 sales in April 2022 which is down from last month and down 18.95% from this time last year. We’ll discuss more about this below.
The most popular home styles in April 2022 were:
1st – Bungalow (121 sales) $621,102
2nd – 2 Storey (101 sales) $791,462
3rd – Raised Ranch (83 sales) $969,334
4th – Ranch (71 sales) $532,586
5th – 1.5 Storey (65 sales) $811,964
Currently we are sitting at a 1.1 months’ supply of inventory (so that means we currently have just over four weeks’ worth of homes left to sell if we stopped getting new listings today – a balanced market would be 4-6 months of inventory).
Wondering what your price category looks like in April 2022? here’s the breakdown:
Sales by Price Category
$0 – $159,900 (0)
$160,000 – $299,999 (17)
$300,000 – $449,999 (99)
$450,000 – $599,999 (159)
$600,000 – $749,999 (140)
$750,000 – $899,999 (106)
$900,000 – $1,199,999 (61)
$1,200,000 – 1,399,999 (18)
$1,400,000 + (17)
If you’re wondering what the April 2022 listings/sales look like where you live in Essex County, here’s the breakdown:
Listings vs Sales by Area
00 – Windsor, LaSalle, Tecumseh – (List 680 – Sold 359)
10 – Amherstburg – (List 75 – Sold 46)
20 – Colchester / Harrow – (List 18 – Sold 10)
30 – Kingsville- (List 56 – Sold 29)
40 – Leamington – (List 72 – Sold 41)
50 – Wheatley – (List 8 – Sold 6)
60 – Lakeshore West – (List 59 – Sold 35)
70 – Essex – (List 32 – Sold 17)
80 – Lakeshore East – (List 36- Sold 18)|
90 – Tilbury – (List 28 – Sold 24)
What does all this mean?
Yes, the market is beginning to cool. Listings are up and sales are down. Average price for April 2022 is $30,080 lower than last month’s average price however we’re up 20.69% compared to this time last year! With currently just over 4 weeks’ (1.1 months) worth of inventory we’re still far from a balanced market from an inventory perspective. As we progress through our typical Spring Market though, we can expect a continued increase in listings giving Buyers more choice – this is normal.
Certainly, news headlines and government policies have made an impact on cooling the market including variable and fixed mortgage rate increases, a Canada-wide 2-year ban on Foreign Buyers (with some exemptions) and news of changes to the blind bidding process here in Ontario (expected in Spring 2023 Sellers will have the choice of using a more transparent or blind bidding process). It is to be expected that with so much news (read those articles carefully!) we would have some Buyers and Sellers pausing to take it all in. Windsor/Essex County has experienced so much growth recently in both migration and industry expansion and is poised to continue that trend well into the future.
We’re expecting interest rates to continue rising so buying power for the average buyer will be reduced somewhat. Are we thinking crash? No. It would be impossible to sustain the kind of month over month and year over year neck breaking gains we’ve been experiencing for any prolonged length of time. If it was, we’d all be living in $1.2M garden sheds by next year. We do have to cool (which we did last summer as well if you recall) and that’s a good thing!
Is it still a good time to sell?
With rates expected to rise further and inventory also increasing while sales are decreasing, if you’re thinking of selling now is a good time to hit the market before rates and inventory numbers climb further.
So, is it a good time to buy?
Yes, why? Inventory levels are climbing offering Buyers more choice and, in many cases, less competition for homes. Should you wait longer to buy, maybe the market will improve even more for Buyers? We are expecting additional mortgage rate hikes sooner than later so the cost of waiting may offset any benefit from higher inventory levels. Unless you have a mattress full of cash, mortgage rates are an important factor not just from a payment perspective but qualification as well!
What about new homes?
This hasn’t really changed much. New construction supply remains low, although prices appear to have stabilized somewhat, but a lack of ready to go building lots and a strong supply of eager new home Buyers is still a challenge. Getting information on new home developments is difficult as many are not listed on Realtor.ca. Now more than ever it’s important to work with a REALTOR® who has good knowledge of the new construction market.
Does all this information apply to everyone?
Real Estate is very difficult to generalize. While averages are great for painting a picture of the general health of the marketplace, many factors are present that determine market value including location, timing/season, pandemic status, condition of home, neighbourhood etc.
I would be happy to sit down with you for a free, no obligation consultation and discuss your specific, unique situation.
Call me at 226-347-6945 or
email: steve@steveblais.com
Steve Blais, Sales Representative
Team Angie Goulet and Associates,
RE/MAX Preferred Realty Ltd. – Brokerage
Enjoy this wonderful Spring weather! Finally!
*Median Sales Price is when you take all of the sale prices listed in numerical order and pick the price in the exact middle of the list, if there is an even number of sales, it is the average of the two middle prices.
