By Condo Culture
By all accounts, our industry, community and world is faced with an unprecedented challenge in the form of Covid-19. This has resulted in the real estate industry adapting and utilizing new resources in an effort to effectively operate in this 'new normal'. This week we take a look at the impact of Covid-19 on the Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and Hamilton condo markets.
The first two months of 2020 were exceptionally robust with year to year growth averaging a 25% increase in condos sold, reduced days on market and average sales prices significantly increased. This strong performance continued until week 12, at which point the effects of changes in business and government policies and market uncertainty started directly affecting real estate operations. From week 13 forward, transactions both on the buying and selling side have slowed significantly but by no means stopped. While the number of sales have dropped over the last few weeks from an incredible start to 2020, the number of transactions year over year remains up almost 20%, compared to 16% on the non-condo side of the market. Sales prices have also remained stable with average prices nearly unchanged since the beginning of the year and up between 15%-20% since 2019 depending on the city (representing an increase of between $54,107 to $70,174 in dollar terms). Despite the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves, condos are still being bought and sold and, to an increasingly large extent, virtually.
At Condo Culture, we remain committed to being your one stop condo resource and helping you to navigate the market during these uncertain times. Join us next week, as our Co-founder & Broker of Record Jeff Gibson goes live on Instagram in an Ask Me Anything Session. If you have a question about the market you'd like Jeff to answer, reply to this email, we'd love to use our live session as an opportunity to answer them. We hope to connect soon. Stay safe and healthy everyone!