Guelph Market Update For March 2020

Hope you are all staying safe! Below you will find a Guelph Market Update For March 2020 which will provide you with information on the local real estate market and recent sales activity in specific Guelph neighbourhoods. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or if you are ready to move forward with the next step!

We wanted to give you a quick update on what we’re currently experiencing in the real estate market and the impact that we’ve seen so far from COVID-19. Also, to go over some of the different outcomes that we could see over the next several months.

Overall, when we look at the March numbers, they were actually pretty good. The number of sales was up 17%, active inventory was down 31%, and average sale price was up 14% from March of 2019. However, you have to take those numbers with a grain of salt because COVID-19 didn’t really start to impact our real estate market until the second half of the month. And, let’s face it, our lives have dramatically changed over the last several week which has quickly impacted our real estate market.

Typically this time of year, throughout March and going into April, we would see an increase in the amount of new listings to hit the market, as well as the number of sales each week as we’re building up towards our peak Spring market. This year, the opposite happened. When comparing the second half of March to the first half, the number of new listings actually decreased by 15% and the number of sales decreased by 23%. We are experiencing those numbers continue to decrease week after week.

We’ve had a lot of buyers right now pull out of the market and they’re just waiting to see where things land after we come out of this. Lot of sellers are doing the same thing. They’ve delayed listing their home until stuff starts to normalize. A lot of people are focusing on self-isolating and being safe, which is good. That’s what you should be doing.

Another indicator of market activity is the number of showings that are booked. If we look at the last week in March compared to the last week in February, the amount of showings booked on properties was down 77%. The amount of offers submitted on properties was down 75%. So far, prices have remained flat. We haven’t experienced a decrease in the average sale price, just a large decrease in the amount of market activity.

The big question, what’s going to happen with the real estate market over the next several months? The honest answer is no one really knows. This is an unprecedented event, and it’s way too early in this for us to really know what the midterm or long-term impacts are going to be on the market. We think a lot of it’s going to come down to how long we’re going to stay in this lock-down state.

If we’re able to flatten the curve and life’s able to start to normalize in the next four to six weeks, we don’t think it’s going to have a major impact on the real estate market. People will go back to work, interest rates are going to be really low, and the government’s going to be strongly encouraging spending. You’re going to see a ton of people that were holding off on listing their houses put them on the market. You’ll see a big jump in inventory, and you’re going to see most of the buyers that were sitting on the sidelines jump back in and take advantage of the low interest rates.

However, if we do remain in a lock-down state for an extended period of time, several months, then it is going to have a big impact on our economy and the real estate market. We’re going to see a lot of these people who are right now temporarily laid off, those layoffs are going to become permanent. You’re going to have people who are going to start having issues paying their mortgages and their bills and you’re going to start seeing a higher level of defaults on mortgages. At that point, lenders are going to start becoming a lot more strict on who they give their money to. Even though we’ll have really low interest rates, there’s going to be less people that are going to be able to take advantage of them. You’re going to have some sellers who are going to need to sell. There are going to be people who have already bought, who have been holding off on listing until hopefully things blow over. But they’re going to have to put their houses on the market, and there’s going to be less people who are out purchasing. That’s going to put a downward pressure on prices.

What happens over the next few weeks is really going to give us a better idea of what’s to come. We’ll keep you updated with what we’re seeing in the real estate market and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at The GoWylde Team. Please stay safe and healthy!