The number of homes that sold in March in Windsor-Essex may have fallen precipitously, but the president of the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors insists the housing market is not slowing down.
A total of 487 homes changed hands last month compared to 660 in March 2017. That is a drop of 26.21%.
Over the past few months, housing sales fell 26.02% in February compared to February 2017, 21.43% in January, and 18.03% in December. Housing sales have not been up since last October when they were up 10% from the same period the year before.
If you think that might be a sign Windsor-Essex's red-hot housing market over the past years may finally be starting to slow, Daniel Hofgartner would tell you, not at all. He says it is not a lack of interest on the part of home buyers.
"The housing market has actually never been better," he says. "We just have a lack of inventory on homes for sale. It's really been supply and demand that has been creating the downturn in the sales right now."
Average home prices are actually up 11.82% so far this year compared to the first three months of 2017. In March, the average selling price in the region is $280,386.
"Right now, we still have a high demand of buyers looking for houses, so if anything it's going to continue to create higher prices for home selling," Hofgartner explains.
Even if housing sales continue to drop off, Hofgartner says there are 872 listings on the market, and he does not expect market activity to drop off any time soon.
"A great economy, low unemployment, great interest rates, still very, very low-interest rates," says Hofgartner naming off a list of reasons why the local housing market has been able to sustain its pace. "Windsor's housing market is still one of the cheapest in Ontario."
