March 2020 statistics are in from WECAR (The Windsor Essex County Association of Realtors) and what a month March has been.
As COVID-19 made it’s debut in Canada the local Real Estate market that was initially on track to again realize significant gains over 2019 in March has understandably cooled especially in the second half of the month.
As always, when we use averages to discuss real estate metrics it is never more obvious than right now that the numbers do not properly reflect our current market conditions as of today. Especially over the past week listings and sales are slowly decreasing (as expected) as more and more Canadians take the health risk of COVID-19 seriously and do their part by staying home and practicing physical distancing.
April statistics will likely provide a much better picture as to where the numbers are during the pandemic so far, however unless Buyers and Sellers have specific urgent financial reasons for needing to sell right now, our local real estate market should be, for the time being anyway, effectively be put on pause.
The are a wide range of predictions from Economists and Analysts circulating however the consistent variable is just how long the pandemic will last. However many are predicting a fairly quick rebound of the real estate markets as low interest rates and pent up demand will drive listings/sales once it’s safe to resume “business as usual”.
With the Premiere placing a ban on new building permits for residential new construction yesterday, this will likely create a bit of a backlog once restrictions are eased for those wishing to build new homes as buyers were already faced with long build times in our hot new construction market.
Windsor/Essex County is no stranger to tough economic times in the past and we’ve always worked hard and strived to overcome it. This will be no different. The most important thing is that we all stay safe and healthy.
Take care and stay safe everyone!
