Real Estate

  Rising interest rates in September kept up the pressure on the Real Estate market in Southern Ontario.  However, Toronto-area pricing is showing signs of stabilizing, with only a very modest decrease in the month of September.  Stabilization in the largest market in Ontario is likely to have a ripple effect outwards to smaller markets, as lower prices outside of the GTA will attract interest.

 The early numbers are out for September 2022 in Real Estate in Southern Ontario.   According to the Niagara Association of Realtors (https://www.niagararealtor.ca/public/Stats/2022/Media%20Release%20Stats%20September%202022.pdf), the HPI Benchmark price for September 2022 for Niagara fell 3.7% as compared to August 2022.  For the same period in Greater Toronto (https://trreb.ca/files/market-stats/market-watch/mw2209.pdf), prices were very slightly higher (about 1%). What does this all mean?   During the "Covid years" - the ~2 years when mortgage rates dropped almost to zero and work-from-home was a reality for almost everyone - Niagara-area Real Estate prices rose at a much greater rate than GTA houses.  Now that interest rates have returned to "normal" levels, and that work-from-home is not a universal reality for almost everyone, you would expect Niagara prices to retract further than GTA prices.  This is now what we're seeing.