Last month, 488 homes were sold in Niagara Region. That compares to 372 homes in September of 2023. Photo Credit: iStock.
The Niagara Association of Realtors (NAR) released its September market update on the local housing market, noting that more homes were sold last month than during the same month in 2023.
Last month, 488 homes were sold in Niagara Region. That compares to 372 homes in September of 2023.
In September, 1,457 listings were added to the market, compared to 1,366 in September 2023. The average sale time was 44 days, up 19 per cent from a year prior.
That means that both more homes went on the market compared to last year and more sold, pointing to a possible balancing of the housing market compared to a weaker showing in the summer.
Niagara Association of Realtors President Nathan Morissette pointed to a several factors that might be leading to an improvement in the market compared to the summer.
“Lowering interest rates, mortgage rule changes and some good local housing policies have given consumers confidence in the market again and this is evident in the 30% increase we saw in sales compared to September 2023,” said Morisette.
“But we still require government on all levels to work together to provide strong housing policies to make Niagara an attainable place for families to achieve the dream of home ownership.”
The federal government recently introduced mortgage rule changes that allow for 30-year mortgages for new homebuyers. The Bank of Canada has also decreased interest rates over the past few months, bringing them down from the highest rates seen in over a decade. More decreases are expected in the coming months.
The benchmark price in Niagara Region for September was $640,000. That’s stable compared to August but it’s also two per cent lower than the benchmark price was in September 2023.
A “benchmark” home is a home between the age of 51 and 99 with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a gross living area (above ground square footage) of 1,262 feet.
Within Niagara Region, the greatest number of new listings were found in St. Catharines (363), Niagara Falls (277), Welland (196) and Fort Erie (165). The largest year-over-year gain was in Port Colborne-Wainfleet, which saw the number of houses on the market increase from 67 a year ago to 97 last month.
The average listing price was the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake ($974,500), while the lowest average listing price was in Port Colborne-Wainfleet ($535,100).
Houses tend to be on the market the shortest in Welland, with an average for sale time of 31 days, while houses tend to be on the market the longest in Fort Erie, with an average sale time of 63 days.
Those numbers are somewhat different from a year ago. The average listing price was also the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake in September 2023, but the average listing price was $1,052,400. The lowest average listing price in September 2023 was in Welland, which was $529,000. The average listing price is Welland has now risen above the average listing price in Port Colborne-Wainfleet.
Back in September 2023, the average length of houses being on the market was lowest in St. Catharines (26 days) and highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake (51 days). Lincoln now has the shortest average duration of houses on the market (34 days), while Fort Erie has the longest (63 days).
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
