OUR 200ᵀᴴ ISSUE
This is our 200th issue of the Guelph Weekly Sales report, as if the title wasn’t a spoiler alert. We had long planned to celebrate this milestone and then a pandemic struck the planet and has disrupted and impacted our lives in so many ways.
I contemplated putting these posts on hold as the market ground to a halt and thought it might be insensitive to post about successful sales during a period of incredible hardship.
I typically start writing these posts with some bullet points and ideas, and building out this issue I did something I’ve done time and time again with clients trying to make a decision — a plus/minus chart. It didn't take long to see the plus side of the equation out number the negative side of moving forward with today’s blog post. Especially after reviewing some past posts, my decision to celebrate our 200th issue and keep posting is the right thing to do.
If the past 30 years of helping families buy and sell homes has taught me anything, it's that quitting is not an option. I’ve had the benefit of seeing a few recessionary markets affect our local housing market. I say benefit because we often experience our greatest lessons and growth from difficult times. Historically, the Guelph real estate market has shown some pretty incredible resilience. We’ve seen sudden drops in value in excess of 25%, properties worth less than what they are mortgaged for, and yet the real estate market has been able to regain its momentum. I foresee a similar return of values once we get through this event.
There’s no question that we are going through some tough times right now and these conditions are likely to persist for several months. There will be a lot of people affected health-wise and financially by this event, through no fault of their own.
What I’m choosing to take from this event is to recognize and appreciate the side of this pandemic that brings us together as a community and country.
Our worlds have been reduced to the smallest spaces; our homes. Some of us are in small apartments, others in large homes and we’re all sharing the same feeling of isolation and the proximity of our four walls regardless of their size.
From my home office window I’ve watched neighbours dropping groceries and supplies off on each other’s porches. I’ve watched glasses raised from a safe distance across the street. I’ve watched people engaged in long conversations while spaced metres apart. There has been an intimacy and community-building to a new level that, prior to the pandemic, was difficult to experience because of the pace we maintained.
If you’re like me, you’ve discovered books you picked up ages ago that you had every intention of reading and are now taking the time to relish them at a much more relaxed pace. I’ve tackled that lengthy “honey do” list stuck to the fridge.
Our forced isolation has helped us accomplish more social interaction in a positive way than all the tweets and facebook posts couldn’t achieve. Superficial posts and conversations about your latest purchase or insta-worthy trips were instantly forgettable because they lacked a feeling of being genuine. The conversations and interactions I’m remembering are those that centre around what makes us human and a family.
I’m grateful I live in a neighbourhood that has more than risen to the challenge. The check-ins and pantry shares have certainly made these past 3 weeks much more tolerable.
I’m grateful that I live in a community and country that has rallied behind healthcare workers and put politics on the sidelines, for now at least. I choose to see how we will grow and become stronger as a country, community and neighbours.
Lately I think many of us in the real estate industry have forgotten the true nature of what real estate really means. The many houses, townhomes, condos that change hands each week represent a home to people. Hopes, dreams and ambitions that too often are forgotten in the rush to put a deal together. The coming months will see hardship for some homeowners, loss of work and income security will mean the dreams and hopes that a home represents to them will be lost. It will be our job to help people preserve their homeownership dreams — a job that is going to require a lot of compassion and understanding. I witnessed this many years ago as a young Realtor helping homeowners deal with a market that was saturated with homes for sale and interest rates in the double digits. The conditions may not be the same today, but the skills and compassion needed to overcome a tough market will rise to the occasion.
As you may have expected, the Guelph real estate market has slowed considerably in the past week. Last week we saw a 50% reduction in sales versus the same week in 2019. This week we’re at 32% of the previous year’s results. The transactions put together last week represent deals coming together that have been in the works for the past few weeks. I expect next week to be even slower and the full effect of the virus and social isolation takes effect. Real estate has been trumped by Maslov’s hierarchy of needs in that survival, security and health have become the sole focus of most of us.
The week in review:
19 homes sold in the past 7 days in the City of Guelph. The same weeks in 2019 and 2018 reported 60 and 66 homes sold. Still 21% of the homes reported sold this past week went at or above list price. Again, likely the result of deals negotiated prior to the full effect of the pandemic.
The median home was a 3 bed, 2 bath 1,345 square foot home that sold for $545,000 or $404.31/sqft. It took 12 days for the sale to happen and sellers were able to negotiate 98.75% of their list price.
With the market virtually at a standstill now, the coming week’s sales numbers will not likely be as relevant as the past few weeks. The number of sales will be too small to produce significant median and average numbers. When the market does restart, we will reference back to the month of March as a benchmark for where the market has landed.
Stay tuned. We are in this for the long haul and will continue to report to you on a weekly basis.
In the meantime, stay strong, healthy and we will survive this together as a stronger community.
Thank you to all of our readers for being a part of this blog over the past several years. Your readership is what makes this blog a reality, and our team is dedicated to continue bringing you accurate, transparent and relevant information on the local real estate market.
Take care,
Paul
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