By Staff
February 14th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
January seems to have been the month of reckoning in Burlington.
When comparing January 2017 to 2018, sale prices are down over 11%, sales are down 14% and it is taking an average of 41 days to sell a property.
This may seem like bad news but we see it more as a shakeout. Just over 60 of the properties sold in January had been on the market for 50-150 days.
During the month of January, 133 listings either expired or were cancelled. We still had just under 75 properties that have been on the market for over 50 days and of those, 25 over 100 days. As these listings sell, the days on market number tends to be skewed upwards. We expect these older listings that are for the most part over-priced, to either reduce or sell, cancel or expire.
More significant and the reason for our optimism is the fact that of the 156 freehold properties that were listed in January, 40% of those listings sold in the same month and for an average of 99.48% of the asking price.
This suggests to us two things – if a property is priced sharply, it will sell in very short order. If a property is priced on the high side of an evaluation, it will take a while to sell and the price may need tweaking. Properties that sold in under 50 days sold for an average of 97.93% while the properties that had been on the market for over 50 days sold for an average of 96.22% of asking price.
One thing is for sure, pricing properties today is a very tricky business.
The data and the analysis is provided by the Rocca Sisters, a Burlington based real estate brokerage.
Do the Rocca Sisters have data on how many active listings are up? (Year over year). I’d be curious if the number of active listings has changed dramatically from 2017 to 2018. I suspect it has. That may have something to do with the lower sales numbers as well.
It almost seems like some homes are put on the market in a neighbourhood at hugely inflated prices knowing full well they won’t sell.
Then in the meantime other homes go on the market at high prices – but still a bargain compared to the overpriced homes – and they sell quickly.
Later on, those “sellers” of the overpriced homes decide – well I guess I’ll just stay put after all.