January Newsletter!
The Year of the Rabbit aka ‘Quick Like A Bunny’
Welcome to January 2023! We are very excited to see what this coming year will look like…so let’s head down the Real Estate Rabbit hole.
Despite the gloom and doom that the media is always parading in front of us, we can tell you that the market is off to a fine start. Buyers are already out in force…we should know…we sold 2 homes last week. And we are working with a number of other buyers, as well as a couple of sellers. We feel that more sellers will venture onto the market as soon as they see that prices are holding strong and that homes are selling in the usual ‘quick like a bunny’ GTA manner of 1 week (unless they are overpriced).
It is true that the market has made an adjustment since interest rates started to rise. In our market that adjustment is looking like a decrease of 5 to 10% depending on the type of property. This is a much more modest decrease than was predicted by the doomsayers.
Why is the real estate market holding its own? International immigration added 154,071 people to Ontario’s population in the third quarter of 2022. This was an increase of 71.9% from the same period in 2021. This was also the first time in history that net international immigration exceeded 140,000 people. Additionally, over 22,000 persons migrated to Ontario from other provinces. HOW COULD THE MARKET BE ANYTHING BUT STRONG!
Our 4th quarter 2022 sale prices remained strong and our sellers were very happy with their sale prices. The key to successfully selling your home this Spring is, in my opinion, a matter of pricing it correctly and employing the best marketing strategy.
WHAT ABOUT CONDOS, YOU ASK…
There are some good deals to be had in the condo market. Most condos have stalled and depending on the seller’s motivation, there are some reasonably good deals to be had.
Typically spring is our hottest market (starting in February), and I expect that this year will not be different. I will keep you posted.
Stay warm and do some nice things for yourself. Personally I find that a nice hot cocoa and candlelit dinners go a long way to taking the chill off winter evenings.
All the best,
Karina