February 2022 Market Report - Windsor Essex vs Other Cities

As we roll into March preparing for the relaxing of mandates, warmer weather, the return of open houses and (hopefully) a surge of inventory on the market, it’s important to see trends to help (again, hopefully) give us some insight into the coming months Real Estate Market in Windsor Essex

Windsor’s Continued Climb – Why And How

It’s clearly evident we are continuing to climb. Truthfully with the low (but growing) amount of inventory, and an increasing number of buyers, this was inevitable. With that said, this isn’t just our local market, as we will see in further paragraphs.

Why are we climbing? Well, everyone is really. This country, and this province in particular has a housing shortage in entry level homes, creating a bottleneck in the lower priced homes and increasing prices overall. This continued in February, and even with a small increase in Bank of Canada lending rates, will likely continue to keep prices lofty.

How can this continue? Until we have more homes on the market for first time home buyers, this will continue. There is provincial legislation coming to help this (OREA is at the forefront in this – check out https://www.orea.com/News-and-Events for more info) but an exact time where I can say this takes effect – that I don’t know or wish to speculate on.

How We Stack Up Against Other Markets

CITY/REGION	AVERAGE PRICE (CAD$)
Windsor Essex	$704,112
National Benchmark	$869,300
Oakville-Milton	$1,710,000
GTA-Mississauga	$1,340,000
Greater Vancouver	$1,300,000
London East	$645,000
London South	$838,000
London North	$958,000

Data from WECAR, LSTAR, and CREA

The comparison isn’t apples to apples here, but we have seen an incredibly large increase of families moving from larger markets to smaller ones like Windsor Essex. Our satellite towns encompassed in the WE market are highly sought after clean, safe communities offering so much to families. Buyers are recognizing this, and perhaps the pandemic has sparked a rejuvenation into the idea of settling into a quieter community with some space. Whatever the reason is, Windsor Essex has homes people want – and it shows in our continued price increases.

With our Wine Region – EPIC – producing amazing products, our breweries and distilleries growing with our bustling restaurant scenes and beautiful landscapes, our region will continue to grow. If you are considering selling, and relocating in the area, now is the time. If you’re a first time buyer, there’s no way to say it besides – yes, it’s difficult.

Market Activity – New Listings vs Homes Sold

With Market Activity (homes listed for sale) increasing that should help to begin the long process of stabilization. This doesn’t mean homes will be going for less – however it may be that winning an offer may be a little more attainable. To have a truly balanced market would take much more than just listing more homes, it would require less buyers as well, and our market is full of buyers.

The “Home Sales” is not by dollar value, it’s the quantity of homes sold in the timeframe – this being 549 for February. Seeing more homes listed than sold might look promising for a buyer, but we are still incredibly low on homes available – still near an all time low in our recorded CREA history.

Sale Price – 2022 vs 2021 – Average Sale Price vs Median Sale Price

Both the Average Sale and Median Sale prices soaring above 40% year over year in February showcasing the soaring demand for homes in the area. To be clear – these are not normal growth percentages. However we still have among the most “affordable” priced Real Estate among cities of our size in the Province. Using the term affordable loosely.

Homes valued between $420k-$749k still dominate the landscape. As seen in a previous post regarding Listing vs Selling Prices (check it here), these are likely first time home buyers, and these homes are listed between $250k-$350K, likely. Again, please see the post previous for a full breakdown there.

I’ll be closely monitoring the situation for the coming months, but am hopeful for some more inventory and more stabilized growth coming for our area. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me directly!