Spring 2023 Bulletin
Hello Friends!
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read the Spring Townsend Real Estate Bulletin. With the arrival of Spring colours and the amazing weather last week, it almost seems like Summer! Over the past few months I have been busy attending a lot of training sessions to learn new skills and keep up to date on the current local market. In addition to learning and helping clients with leasing, selling and buying my primary focus was on building my own company website. www.townsendrealestate.ca was launched almost a month ago and will help introduce me to new and potential clients, share handy documents, current information, client testimonials and host all things Townsend Real Estate! I invite you to check out the website and would truly appreciate you sharing it with family/friends.
Local Market Update:
Spring has sprung and while it’s typically the busiest time of year in the real estate market, this year transactions are down significantly. Our market is driven mainly by supply and demand and supply is way down! With supply being so low, it is causing many challenges for current buyers. Over the past 4-6 weeks we have seen the return of many sellers returning to the “list low & hold offers” strategy to try and spark bidding wars and competition. Local sellers have had some success with this strategy but we are not seeing the same level of crazy over paying and offers with no conditions that we saw in early 2022. Properties listed locally, under $1 Million are selling very well with the average days on market down from 26 days in the winter to approximately 13 days currently. Our local region is still hanging on to a seller’s market with a list to sales ratio in most areas remaining steady. Overall, it’s a bit of a stalemate, with sellers not particularly excited about selling and buyers having very little/quality inventory to choose from. That being said there are a few market drivers that will help bring optimism to sellers which in turn helps buyers.
1. Stability in the Bank of Canada interest rate hikes. We’ve now had 2 announcements with no changes in rates. This stability brings a sense of confidence and predictability to buyers and sellers alike.
2. Life happens. No matter what is going on in the broader market, people still expand their families, get married, get divorced, move to a new city, etc. These things often trigger the need to move to a different space and many of these circumstances can only be put off for so long!
3. Prolonged high interest rates will start to put pressure on homeowners who are feeling the financial pinch. That said, we have a “stress test” for a reason - to ensure that should there be a sudden spike in interest rates, Canadians won’t suddenly be defaulting on their mortgages. So far, we’ve stayed mostly within the boundaries of what many buyers were stress-tested for during the low-interest period pre-March 2022. But, as time goes on, there will be more homeowners inching closer and closer to having to make some tough decisions about their financial well being by downsizing, etc.
We are beyond the bottom of the market now and have seen prices steadily increasing since the start of 2023. We expect modest increases as the Spring Market continues to roll along before the summer break and into a stable Fall Market. If you have any questions about buying selling, leasing or the current market conditions please reach out at any time. I am here to help!
TrilliumWest & Townsend Real Estate Giving Back To The Community:
TrilliumWest hosts an annual charity golf tournament and for the second year I am the tournament chairman. Along with an amazing group of my colleagues we are organizing, planning and gearing up for this years event! The 2023 TW Classic Supporting HopeSpring Cancer Support Centre is being hosted on Monday June 5th at Grey Silo Golf Course in Waterloo.
HopeSpring is local to Waterloo Region/ Wellington County and has been instrumental in supporting one of our long time TW colleagues in her fight with cancer. Many hours are being spent putting together a fantastic day for a great cause! To learn more about the event, register for golf, review sponsorship opportunities or donate to our auction please visit www.twclassic.ca or contact me for more details. Thank you in advance for any assistance you are able to provide!
