In March, 1,167 residential properties were on the market, compared to 1,046 in 2023. The average sale time was 43 days last month, slightly longer than it was one year ago. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock Images.
The Niagara Association of Realtors (NAR) released its March market update on the local housing market, noting that more homes were on the market last month than a year prior.
In March, 1,167 residential properties were on the market, compared to 1,046 in 2023. The average sale time was 43 days last month, slightly longer than it was one year ago.
There were 553 sales in the region last month as well. That’s down from 560 sales in March of 2023.
“March was a strong month, with increases complimenting the upward trend we are seeing in the market over the last few months,” said Niagara Association of Realtors President Nathan Morrissette.
Morrissette noted that the average amount of time a home is on the market is down significantly since January, dropping from an average of 54 days to 43.
Morrissette also emphasized the need for more houses to be built in order to meet the provincial government’s aggressive targets for Niagara Region by 2031.
The benchmark price for February was $633,400. That’s up from February, but it’s also 1.3 per cent lower than the $639,600 benchmark price was in March of 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 (291), Niagara Falls (217), Fort Erie (163) and Welland (131). The largest year-over-year gain was in St. Catharines, which saw the number of houses on the market increase from 235 a year ago to 291 last month.
The average listing price was the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake ($1,014,700), while the lowest average listing price was in Fort Erie ($530,200).
Houses tend to be on the market the shortest in Thorold, with an average for sale time of 28 days, while houses tend to be on the market the longest in West Lincoln, with an average sale time of 64 days.
Those numbers are somewhat different from a year ago. The average listing price was also the highest in Niagara-on-the-Lake in March of 2023, but the average listing price was $1,015,200. The lowest average listing price in March of 2023 was in Port Colborne/Wainfleet, which was $512,900. Port Colborne/Wainfleet still has the lowest average listing, but it’s up to $519,400.
Back in March of 2023, the average length of houses being on the market was lowest in Thorold (29 days) and highest in Fort Erie (55 days). Thorold still has the shortest average duration of houses on the market (28 days), while Fort Erie has been edged out by West Lincoln (64 days) for the title of the longest.
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.
