The average price of a home in Hamilton is up 30 per cent year-over-year to slightly more than $864,000, according to the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington’s (RAHB).
The latest monthly report for October for the Hamilton-Burlington market states the average price for a residential property is up 27 per cent to $922,297. Month-over-month the average Hamilton home is up nine per cent.
“The rising prices are due to the shortage of inventory and the fact that buyers represent 50 per cent of the market,” RAHB President Donna Bacher told 900 CHML’s Hamilton Today.
Many buyers are realtors as well, she said.
“So it’s certainly has been a different market for everyone involved.”
Bacher says a key element with a significant effect on the latest statistics were strong sales in homes listed in $1 million-plus category.
“So that indicated a greater demand from ‘move up and move over’ buyers who are looking for larger homes,” said Bacher.
And that had an impact in the median benchmark prices of all dwelling types, she added.
Sales in the region year-over-year actually dropped 18 per cent in Hamilton. Burlington was off by 33 per cent.
New listings decreased by nine per cent last month compared to September, and were down 23 per cent since last October.
Ancaster has the highest average price for the area, checking in at $1,319,953, a 41 per cent increase year-over-year.
The lowest is Hamilton centre where the average sale price of a home was $603,360 at the end of October.
The average price in Burlington is up 28 per cent to $1,148,587, compared with October 2020.
Niagara North’s average price year over year was up 37 per cent to $941,251. Haldimand County was up about 32 per cent to $772,656 in 2021 from $583,841 in October 2020.
For the entire RAHB market area, the average sale price of a detached property increased by five per cent last month to $1,033,169.
In October, Oxford Economics North America Housing Affordability Indices (HAIs), which measures home prices relative to a median household income, said Hamilton’s index was up slightly from 1.5 in the first quarter 2021 report to 1.51 in the latest study published in October.
That number makes Hamilton one of the top five least affordable housing markets in North America, ahead of Las Vegas, San Jose and Los Angeles.
Bacher attributes the latest issues to “pent up demand” from pandemic lockdowns, which stalled the market.
“What we’re seeing now is just there are so many people looking for a place to move to,” Bacher said. “Young couples who are getting married and want to move out of their parents basement.”