Careful, Don't Look Up

Another blink and you might miss the half-way point of the year.  Is it me? As I’m on the back side of my 50’s it kind of feels like things are accelerating.  The first 6 months of 2019 are pretty much in the rearview mirror and despite the best efforts of the doomsayers, the Guelph real estate market continues to hum along.  Sales overall in the City of Guelph are up 19.2% over the May of 2018.  For a market that was predicted to slow down significantly in 2019, that certainly hasn’t happened. 

Now it hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies this year.  Sellers are still enjoying strong market conditions but that doesn’t mean each sale is automatically going to get multiple or above list price offers.  

Buyers have become way more patient in this market.  They will still jump quickly and decisively for the right property.  However, we are seeing more and more properties that are lingering past 45 days.  

There are currently 356 homes available for sale in the City of Guelph as of today.  Of those 356 homes, 150, 42%, of them have been on the market over 30 days with the median DOM at 46 days.  55% of these homes are concentrated in 4 of the 18 Guelph neighbourhoods we have defined within the MLS® board. 

Those 4 neighbourhoods, Grange, Kortright East, Kortright West and Westminster Woods also happen to be the most active neighbourhoods as well.  Westminster Woods has the greatest concentration at, 27 or 18% of the homes on the market have been active over 30 days.  Kortright East has 20 or 13%, followed by Kortright W at 16, 11%, and Grange at 19 or 12.67%.  These neighbourhoods also contain the bulk of the homes priced above the median sales price of $515,000. 

What does this mean to you as a Seller? 

In my opinion, this means that if your home is in the $600,000 plus range, it’s critical that you price your home to the market.  Buyers have full access to this kind of information and savvy buyer agents are certainly sharing these kind of statistics with their buyers, and counselling patience when the numbers suggest a seller is being too aggressive in pricing their home.  

Home Group Realty makes sure our agents and clients are educated about the constantly changing market conditions and trends.  We make sure our sellers know exactly what their competition is and how to position their home to maximize sales price while minimizing the time on market. There is no one-size-fits-all marketing, which is typical throughout most brokerages.  If you are selling this year, make sure you have a strategic marketing plan that’s custom to your home and neighbourhood market conditions.  

For buyers, this kind of information is a gold mine we use to coach our clients when we negotiate their purchases.  Over list offers still exist and are a necessary tactic when representing buyers, but not every price point or neighbourhood makes this tactic the only one to use.  

Market knowledge is one component that helps our agents outperform the average agent in this market.  As a homeowner or someone wanting to be in the market, knowledge is the big differentiator.  Make sure the brokerage and agent you work with has the knowledge and expertise to best represent you. 

The week in review for June 14, 2019

52 homes were reported sold. An 8.3% increase over the same week in 2018.  42.3% or 22 homes sold at or above list price.  

The median home looked like the following: 

3 beds, 2 baths, 1371 sqft and sold for $515,000 or $383.55 per sqft.  This median home took 15 days to sell and buyers were paying 99.23% of the original list price.  

The 2018 median home for the same week looked was: 

3 beds, 2 baths, 1335 sqft and sold for $496,000 or $357.61/sqft., took 15 days and buyers paid 98.47% of the original list price.  

Thanks for reading.

If you are considering buying or selling, our HGR team will be happy to provide you with a no-obligation consultation.