The Niagara real estate market in 2020 continues to set records and defy reasonable expectations. Across the board and city-to-city we are seeing previous records broken and heights reached in all ends of the data.
Remember in April when the total number of sales were down over 62% year over year? Who would have anticipated that only 3 months later, July would start a record run of monthly sales volume?
The run from July through November has been a case study in the effect that supply and demand can have on a market.
Since the post-COVID market got up and running, the same market trends have occurred from the coast of Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.
- Historic increases in the number of sales (Demand).
- Relatively unchanged number of new listings (Supply).
- Record breaking average sale price increases.
- Much quicker time to sell (less days on the market).
Here are some examples for the time period from July – November 2020 v 2019:
Niagara Region
The number of new listings increased only 2.4% while sales jumped by 38%. This led to a 25% increase in the average sale price from $464,000 to $580,000.
Niagara Falls
The Falls had a massive 5-month span where the number of sales increased 51.9% while new listings increased by 13.8%. This led to a 24.6% increase in average sale price.
St.Catharines
St.Catharines had a bit of a more relatively moderate 5-month span but still significant numbers. A 1.4% increase in new listings along with a 24.9% in sales led to a 15.8% increase in average sale price.
Niagara-on-the-Lake
While NOTL doesn’t have as large a sales volume (number of sales) as St.Catharines or Niagara Falls, this little town in north-east Niagara still posted some major numbers.
An increase of 7.0% in new listing inventory did not feed the demand which saw the number of sales jump by 116.3%. The result was a 25.5% increase in average sale price which topped $1M for the 5-month span.
And on and on the trend went.
The reality is that the demand came back in July and only increased its momentum as the supply (new listings) either kept at normal levels or increased only moderately. Here in the 2nd week of December and in general, the market is on pace to post the 6th month of record setting data.
If December finished off as expected, the result will be the strongest 2nd half of all-time.
Going into 2021, the big determinant in market activity will be if this level of buyer demand sustains itself coupled with the level of supply. Will the level of new listings (supply) continue to improve? Only time will tell.
For a look at the city-by-city reports for all of Niagara, click here.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll connect you with one of our Realtors.