August 23rd, 2019 Sales Summary:

Talking Privacy

This week represents the first anniversary of what was a landmark victory for the competition bureau.  You might recall that a year ago the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) lost their appeal to keep sold data locked away from the public.  You can read issue 116 here.

Well, a year has passed and the real estate world is still here and, I would argue, still thriving.  The world didn’t come crashing down, at least yet.  Partly because not much has changed. There hasn’t been a proliferation of sites publishing sales data. TREB and most of the other real estate boards in Ontario are still working out how and what will this look like.  For the most part you can expect the data will remain behind a paywall or subscription wall very much like this one.  The privacy issue is still present. We have witnessed about a handful of listings that have had all their photos and a lot of the details stripped out after being reported sold.  Not very helpful if you are trying to determine how relevant or comparable that sale may be to the property you are trying to price.  Sour grapes and a mean streak?  Or, being prudent and protecting the privacy of the seller and the new buyer.  There are arguments for both side.  From where I sit, I suspect more of the former versus the latter.  This is a much bigger issue in TREB, where I’ve heard hundreds of listings are being stripped of their useful data once being reported sold.  

Here’s the issue with stripping the data and photos out.  

In the Guelph board we’ll see around 300 listings reported sold each month.  As the broker of record, I’m not active in the market; managing a team of 54 and staff of 7 takes up more hours than I care to count.  Even at the height of my selling career, viewing and showing properties every day, it was virtually impossible to see every home that came onto the market. We rely heavily on the sold listing data to help price homes coming onto the market.  The challenge when the photos and descriptions are stripped out doesn’t leave a lot of data for me to interpret and use to compare the home I’m pricing.  This situation is akin to cutting your nose off to spite your face.  The art of pricing becomes more difficult for everyone when the actions of a few make it tough for everyone.  

The whole real estate market and MLS® system is built on co-operation and trust.  It’s a weird business.  Highly competitive yet completely reliant on competing parties sharing and cooperating.  Home Group Realty opened 8 years ago with the mission of providing clients with a superior real estate experience.  That means our purpose is to make sure our clients, agents, and consumers are the best educated participants in the real estate marketplace.  That way we can ensure the best possible outcomes for all parties.  We believe in doing the right thing.  To that end, HGR will always strive to provide the most concise data and content possible for the benefit of all.  

Here’s the story from the Guelph real estate market for the past week:

55 homes were reported sold in Guelph, Guelph-Eramosa, and Puslinch Townships.  That's a 25% increase over the same week last year.  A significant increase, and reflects the delayed spring market this year.  Everything is running 4-6 weeks late this year. 

The median home sold last week was a 3 bed, 2 bath 1,300 square foot home which sold for $520,000, or $400.16/sqft. It took 21 days for this home to sell and the owner was able to negotiate 98.06% of their list price.  

Compared with the same week in 2018 where we reported 44 homes sold.  The median home last year was a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,236 sqft home that sold for $470,000 after being on the market for 18 days.  The seller was able to negotiate 98.56% of their list price.  

Our market continues to show strong growth year over year with prices up 5.7% year to date over 2018.  The days on market have been pretty consistent this year averaging 16 days while the sale to list price ratio is down 3 points to 99% from an insane 101.9%. We never expected the heady days of most sellers getting over list price to last.  However, I’m pleasantly surprised that the “settling” of the Guelph real estate market has been calm and orderly.  We haven’t experienced the more dramatic drop and changes that the GTA and other major metropolitan areas have experienced. Overall still great news for the Guelph and area market.

It’s finally here!  The 22nd iteration of Guelph Ribfest opens today at noon!  Get your fill of sumptuous ribs, local bands, and great brews all while helping support local charities in our community. You can check out the Ribfest activities here.

Thanks to the local sponsors that support the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium.

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