Real Estate Market Snapshot – Q1 2021 in Review

At the time of writing, Easter & Passover have come and gone, and Ontario is once again in pandemic lockdown – newly dubbed “the Emergency Brake”. Yet our Real Estate Market continues with more Buyers than Sellers and many properties selling in hours with multiple offers mostly close to or over the asking price.

RBC estimated home resales in Canada increased about 13% last year to 552,300 units, blowing past the previous record set in 2016. The bank’s economics division also projected those sales will hit an even higher level in 2021, to 588,300 units, as low interest rates, space-seeking buyers and a high level of household savings keeps demand going. No question we are seeing this effect in our area.

“Typical consumption patterns have been disrupted as the pandemic has driven the household savings rate to levels not seen in decades,” said Phil Soper, President/CEO of Royal LePage. “Most Canadians have sharply reduced spending on discretionary goods and services involving a great deal of human interaction, and with mortgage rates at record lows, many have refocused on housing investments, be it renovations to accommodate work-from-home needs, a recreational property or a new property better suited for the times.”

Statistics Canada reported that in Q1 of 2020, the household savings rate climbed to 7.6% of disposable income, the highest rate since 1996. In Q2, savings spiked to 28.2%, the highest savings rate since the early 1960’s. To compare, from 2015-2020, the average savings rate was approximately 3%.

Our focus for this article, as usual, will be on the 3 key trading areas and types of homes with which we have the most expertise – re-sales of residential condominiums and detached homes in Blue Mountains, Collingwood and Clearview. Q1 ended with only 1 month of inventory (dropping from 5 months in Q1 2020 and again from Q4’s 40 days). The average time for a property to sell dropped to 22 days (2020 Q1 was 56 & Q4 was 34), and the average sale price rose over 35% from Q1 2020 to $898,945, a rise of 7.7% even over Q4. Most sales in Q1 took place in the $500,000 to $750,000 price range, but 85 homes sold over $1,000,000.

HIGHS, LOWS & SPECIFICS

COLLINGWOOD

The high sale was an almost new home with water views at Sunset Point at $2,700,000.
The low sale was a 2 bdrm, 1 bath condo in The Galleries at $340,000.
There were 61 condo sales (compared to 78 in Q4 2020), average Days on Market (DOM) was 27 (vs 20 in Q4 2020), avg sale to list price ratio was 106.2% (100%), and the avg sale price was $620,477 ($570,712) which reflects an 8.7% increase over Q4 2020.
There were 92 single-family home sales (98), avg DOM was 10 (23), avg sale to list price ratio was 104.2% (99.9%), and the avg sale price was $927,094 ($817,268) which reflects a 13% increase over Q4 2020.

BLUE MOUNTAINS

The high sale was a 5700 SF home near Craigleith & Alpine ski clubs at $3,460,000.
The low sales were all income units in the condo-hotels in The Village at Blue Mountain, 4 sold between $225,000 – $319,900.
There were 67 condo sales (69), avg DOM was 26 (34), avg sale to list price ratio was 100% (99.6%), and the avg sale price dropped to $524,432 ($580,154) which reflects a 9.6% decrease from Q4 2020, reflecting the increase in Q1 2021’s number of sales under $700,000.
There were 75 single-family home sales (80), avg DOM was 24 (431), avg sale to list price ratio was 100% (98.2%), and the avg sale price was $1,431,909 ($1,289,785) which reflects an 11% increase over Q4 2020.

CLEARVIEW

The high sale was a new home of 3700 SF in Windrose at $2,900,000.
The low sale was a 2 bdrm, 1 bath home in Stayner for $329,000.
There were 79 single-family home sales (57), avg DOM was 28 (61), avg sale to list price ratio was 101.4% (98.8%), and the avg sale price remained relatively static at $892,832 ($895,274) reflecting the increase in numbers of sales.