Average home sale price in Peterborough jumped to $416,011 in January

The price of a home in Peterborough is up by 12.5 per cent from start the new year.

The average price of a Peterborough home jumped to $416,011 in January, up from $369,715 in December.

“Unlike some other markets in Ontario, supply in our region remains extremely low, which is keeping a firm floor under prices,” said Cathy Burningham, president of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of Realtors (PKAR).

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Some 115 units were sold in January, up 9.5 per cent from the same time in 2018.

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“Activity has been improving, although at this point it is still running a little below average,” Burningham added.

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The average price of a home has shot up in Peterborough over the last decade. It hovered just over $200,000 in 2010, but is now over $400,000.

This has led to frustration for some home buyers, such as Cathi Riehle, who bought in Peterborough in June 2017.

Riehle works from home and was renting in Whitby at the time. After looking along the 401 corridor for a home, she settled in Peterborough. She ended up paying $20-30,000 over the asking price and couldn’t include conditions because she may have lost out on the house, a process she had been through several times while looking in Peterborough.

“I’m in my 40s, and I’ve bought five houses. This was absolutely the worst experience out of all them,” Riehle said. “It was heartbreaking, nerve-wracking, stressful and costly. I had to take everything out of my savings, my RRSP to get my downpayment and make the offer I needed to. The last two years have been a crunch as I adjusted to a mortgage that was higher than I wanted.”

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According to the PKAR, inventory is way below average for the beginning of the year.

There were 362 active listings at the end of January, up by 20.7 per cent from the end of January 2018, but still below average.

This is making it tougher for those looking for a home in the area.

“We’ve been looking casually for about a year. We started looking more intensively in the last couple of months. With it being close to spring, we hope the market opens up,” said Taylor Renkema, a Peterborough resident looking for a house outside the city. “There’s not a lot where we are looking, near Buckhorn or Bobcaygeon, because my fiance works north of the city.”

“It’s tough to find something we’re looking for in the price range we’re looking for. It’s going well so far, though. The key is to compromise, to be able to find something that works, but is not necessarily what you want.”