The Novel Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, was officially declared a Pandemic on March 11th, 2020. Schools were closed as of March 15th. Gas prices reached a record low of 54.9. We are still at the beginning stages and no one has any idea how this will affect the world, never mind the Real Estate Industry. As of March 23rd businesses all across the Province of Ontario were told to shut down. Real Estate was deemed an Essential Service, so we were allowed to continue to help our clients. This does not mean “Business As Usual”. Most recently The Ontario Real Estate Association has asked us all to stop doing face to face appointments and that includes showing homes. In fact, some companies and Realtors and Sellers are not allowing any showings at all. To limit the exposure to the people living in the house they are asking people to put in offers “conditional on the buyers seeing the property in person”. To help people figure out if they like a house, property, or condo you will start to notice changes in the new listings coming on the market. You will see more pictures, more virtual tours, and anything we can do to help buyers see as much as possible in the home without actually having to visit the home. More of us are using Video Calling, Skype, Zoom, Instagram, and Facebook as well to help with performing virtual showings, evaluations, and even home inspections. Thankfully we have been using digital signatures for paperwork and contracts for quite a while now, so no need to sign in person anymore. We will continue to find ways to help our clients that need to sell and help those who need to buy.

This is how the numbers looked. March 2020 had 1661 Total Residential Listings come through the Hamilton Real Estate Board, which is down from the 1819 Listings in March 2019, as reported by The REALTORS ® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB). Hamilton had 1086 of those (down from 1156 in 2019) and Burlington’s share was 419 (down from 446 in March 2019).

Residential Sales located throughout the RAHB market area (including Burlington and all the outlying areas covered by The REALTORS ® Association of Hamilton-Burlington) of 1098 Properties are down 3.1% from March 2019 and up 10% from last month, February 2020. The overall average price for residential properties increased by 14.5% from March 2019 to $658,161. Hamilton’s Residential Sales (including Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek and Glanbrook) were 723, up 1% from 716, with an average price of $605,140 up 16% from March 2019. Burlington had 270 Sales which is down 2% from 275, with an average price of $843,229 which is up 14% from March 2019.

The end of month listing inventory which is a good indication of the type of market currently being experienced shows 958 Active Residential Listings giving Hamilton 1.3 months of inventory, down 7% from March 2019. Burlington has 322 Active Residential Listings giving it 1.2 months of inventory, down 20%. Average days on the market dropped from 31.4 to 21.1 in Hamilton and also decreased in Burlington from 26.5 to 11.8. Right now the Hamilton-Burlington Area is sitting in a Sellers Market, where the ratio of Homes Sold to Homes Listed is above 60%, currently sitting at 66.1%. In other words, 6.6 homes are sold for every 10 new listings. Note that this has dropped since February 2020 from 73.7%! It will be interesting to see how the rest of 2020 looks after the market starts to get back to normal after the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic has run it’s course. Homes Sold to Homes Listed Ratio: Buyers Market is below 40%, Balanced Market is between 40-60%, and Sellers Market is above 60%.   For the rest of the article – Click Here