March 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 March 2022. If you owned an average home in Windsor/Essex County since last March, your home has increased in value on average 35.10%!!! Our new average sale price is $723,739. That’s a $188,031 increase in value in just one year! Last month (Feb 2022) saw a huge jump with an avg sale price of $704,112, but the market wasn’t finished climbing just yet! *(The Median sale price for March 2022 was $680,000).
There were 680 new listings in Feb 2022 compared to a whopping 1,051 new listings in March 2022. This is up considerably from last month and is an increase of 15.37% from the same time last year. There were 549 sales in Feb 2022 compared with 698 sales in March 2022 which is up from last month but down 5.03% from this time last year.
The most popular home styles in March 2022 were:
1st – Bungalow(175 sales) $621,102
2nd – Ranch (121 sales) $791,462
3rd – 2 Storey (100 sales) $969,334
4th – 1.5 Storey (72 sales) $532,586
5th – Raised Ranch (71 sales) $811,964
Currently we are sitting at a 0.6 months supply of inventory (so that means we currently have just over two 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 March 2022? here’s the breakdown:
Sales by Price Category
$0 – $159,900 (3)
$160,000 – $299,999 (12)
$300,000 – $449,999 (94)
$450,000 – $599,999 (199)
$600,000 – $749,999 (187)
$750,000 – $899,999 (126)
$900,000 – $1,199,999 (82)
$1,200,000 – 1,399,999 (31)
$1,400,000 + (23)
If you’re wondering what the March 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 676 – Sold 451)
10 – Amherstburg – (List 84 – Sold 64)
20 – Colchester / Harrow – (List 18 – Sold 10)
30 – Kingsville- (List 39 – Sold 25)
40 – Leamington – (List 72 – Sold 41)
50 – Wheatley – (List 12 – Sold 3)
60 – Lakeshore West – (List 53 – Sold 38)
70 – Essex – (List 35 – Sold 31)
80 – Lakeshore East – (List 19- Sold 8)
90 – Tilbury – (List 27 – Sold 18)
What does all this mean?
With a 15.37% increase in new listings but a 5.03% decrease in sales, have we reached the point where the frenzy will start to cool? If you’ve been thinking of selling but were waiting for prices to continue rising … you may have reached that peak! With currently just over 2 weeks’ worth of inventory this is a great time to sell! As we progress into the typical Spring Market though, we can expect a continued increase in listings giving Buyers more choice, not to mention measures introduced by government to try and cool the market. If you’ve been thinking of Selling, now is the time!
13% of sales (95 homes) in March 2022 sold for over $1 Million! That’s up from last month which was 11% or 65 homes.
The Bank of Canada has begun raising interest rates which are affecting variable rate mortgages but also bond yields are affecting fixed-rate mortgages which have already begun climbing. The Non-Resident speculation tax that previously was at 15% and only in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area has been expanded province-wide and has been increased to 20%! This will affect any Buyers who are not Canadian Citizens or Residents.
Is it still a good time to sell?
Folks the fact remains that we’re still in a strong Seller’s market with bidding wars continuing and well-over-asking sale prices resulting in another record month for average sale price. It’s still a good time to sell. The real question is for how much longer. If you’ve been thinking of selling, this may be your best opportunity.
So, is it a good time to buy?
Again, although it doesn’t seem like it based on the average sale price we’ve just reviewed – like pretty much every month now the longer you wait the more it will cost you. Unfortunately, while we wait, the average price continues to rise steadily upwards making your home purchase more expensive or you having to downgrade your expectations. The bright side is that inventory is climbing which will offer more choice to Buyers and may slowly ease the bidding wars slightly giving Buyers more opportunity to find their perfect home while not necessarily making pricing any lower. So, short of yesterday – today me be the best time to buy.
What about new homes?
New construction supply remains low, and prices continue to climb. There does appear to be some new developments on the nearby horizon however many of these developments are not listed on Realtor.ca – it’s so important to work with a REALTOR who has excellent new construction knowledge and a finger on the pulse of what’s happening, when and where.
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
TeamAngie Goulet and Associates,
RE/MAX Preferred Realty Ltd. – Brokerage
Spring is around the corner!
*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.
