Last month, 488 homes were sold in Niagara Region. That compares to 523 homes in August of 2023. Photo Credit: iStock.
The Niagara Association of Realtors (NAR) released its August market update on the local housing market, noting that fewer homes were sold last month than during the same month in 2023.
Last month, 488 homes were sold in Niagara Region. That compares to 523 homes in August of 2023.
In August, 1,192 listings were added to the market, compared to 1,220 in August 2023. The average sale time was 45 days, up 36 per cent from a year prior.
That means fewer homes went on the market compared to last year and fewer sold, pointing to a further slowdown in Niagara’s housing sector. Similar statistics were reported over the past several months.
Niagara Association of Realtors President Nathan Morissette noted in a press release that because the number of new listings is falling, Niagara Region might be heading toward a market correction and a more balanced market soon.
“The New Listings dropped 11.4% but with sales holding steady it brings the inventory of listings in Niagara down which is needed to achieve a balanced market,” said Morisette.
Morissette also pointed to the Bank of Canada’s decision to cut interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point, to 4.25 per cent, as a sign of good things to come, noting that lower interest rates could give buyers more confidence to get back into the market.
The benchmark price in Niagara Region for August was $640,200. That’s down several thousand dollars from July and it’s also 3.3 per cent lower than the benchmark price was in August 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 (285), Niagara Falls (228), Welland (157) and Fort Erie (146). The largest year-over-year gain was in Pelham, which saw the number of houses on the market increase from 40 a year ago to 65 last month.
The average listing price was the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake ($979,300), while the lowest average listing price was in Port Colborne-Wainfleet ($536,300).
Houses tend to be on the market the shortest in Niagara Falls, with an average for sale time of 37 days, while houses tend to be on the market the longest in Port Colborne-Wainfleet, with an average sale time of 61 days.
Those numbers are somewhat different from a year ago. The average listing price was also the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake in August 2023, but the average listing price was $1,076,900. The lowest average listing price in August 2023 was in Welland, which was $545,400. The average listing price is Welland has now risen above the average listing price in Port Colborne-Wainfleet.
Back in August 2023, the average length of houses being on the market was lowest in Lincoln (24 days) and highest in Fort Erie (46 days). Thorold now has the shortest average duration of houses on the market (35 days), while Pelham has the longest (58 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.
