Despite being in the midst of a pandemic, a total of 6,492 residential homes changed hands in 2020 in the area, according to figures released by the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors (KWAR).
It says that figure, which includes detached houses, semis, condos and townhouses, is nine per cent higher than in 2019.
The sales figures for 2020 totalled $3.9 billion, which was a hefty 26.5 per cent above the previous year.
KWAR President Nicole Pohl believes the hot market is being driven by people heading down the highway from the Toronto area.
“Even well before the pandemic we had noted a trend of consumers migrating out of the GTA to our region,” she stated.
“As the pandemic heated up it only fuelled this fire more as the very concept of what home means was shifting. With more people working from home, some permanently, space has become a greater concern than ever before.”
While home prices remain well above what they were in 2019, they have remained flat since the province reopened in Kitchener-Waterloo following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, KWAR says.
In July, the average cost of buying a home shot up to $639,814 with a similar number being posted in December of $634,545.
That number was still a hefty 14.4 per cent higher than what one would have spent purchasing a new house in the area in December 2019.
“December’s home sales were the highest on record for the month,” Pohl stated.
“This marks the sixth consecutive month of record home sales in Kitchener-Waterloo and helps propel 2020’s annual number of transactions over the 6,000-unit threshold for only the third time in our history.”