Rising interest rates continue to have an effect on the housing market in Waterloo Region as home prices fell for a fifth straight month, according to the newly formed Waterloo Region Association of Realtors.
“In the wake of July’s interest rate hike, home sales in Waterloo Region continued to slow,” says Megan Bell, WRAR president.
“We’re seeing a clear shift in the market and what people can afford to purchase or are willing to pay. On the bright side for buyers, it’s not the extreme sellers’ market it was.”
The new group, which is an amalgamation of the Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge associations, says the average price of buying a home across the region fell to $752,301.
Similarly, the average cost of buying a detached home is down to $842,241, which the realtors say is down six per cent from last July and seven per cent from June.
WRAR says 550 homes changed owners across Waterloo Region in July, which is down around 32 per cent from last July and the previous five-year average for the month.
Bell says the real estate picture in the area is similar to trends occurring across the province.
“The real estate market is cooling across the province, and we are seeing significantly fewer buyers from the GTA, which is also impacting prices,” Bell says.
“However, this is not entirely bad news since the previous market was not sustainable. We are all keenly aware of the issues relating to affordability of not just purchasing a home, but rentals as well, and there is clearly more work to be done.”
Despite the sluggish sales, new houses are still being listed at a high rate as there were 1,174 new listings, a 34 per cent increase over last July and a nine per cent increase over the previous 10-year July average.
Perhaps the most telling statistic for the market’s downward trend was the fact that there were 1,283 homes on the market at the end of July, which is a 215.2 per cent increase over July 2021.