Here's What Happened For July 2020

COVID-19 was officially declared a Pandemic on March 11th, 2020, and just recently Hamilton has entered Stage 3 of re-opening. Open Houses are now allowed, however, personally speaking, I am not in favour of doing that yet. New showing practices are in place to keep everyone safe during these times and that includes Buyers and their agents signing a COVID Questionnaire before having access granted to come into a Sellers home. In most cases, there is a maximum of 3 people allowed in the house (The Buyers Agent and up to 2 Buyers - No Children). There are 30-minute time slots available for showings and overlapping appts are usually not allowed. Keep this in mind if you are wanting to see some properties and it is now more challenging to find a time slot available, especially if you have a few homes to see and would like to go to them in some sort of logistical order. We are still seeing virtual showings, better virtual tours and floor layouts, online evaluations, and even home inspections are sometimes being performed virtually. Digital signatures are now the norm for all and are very simple to use. Our main concern is still and always will be, the health and well being of you and your family.

Here is a look at the fourth full month of statistics since the shutdown. It feels like June and July were the postponed Spring Real Estate Market! July 2020 had 1905 Total Residential Listings come through the Hamilton Real Estate Board, which is well up from the typical summertime listings of 1750 Listings in July 2019, as reported by The REALTORS ® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB). Hamilton had 1226 of those (up from 1156 in 2019) and Burlington's share was 491 (up from 367 in July 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 1613 Properties are up 27.8% from July 2019 and up 23.7% from last month, June 2020. The overall average price for residential properties increased by 16.3% from July 2019 to $692,999 and is also up 2.6% from last month. Hamilton's Residential Sales (including Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster, Waterdown, Stoney Creek and Glanbrook) were 1026, up 25% from 819, with an average price of $628,834 up 15% from July 2019. Burlington had 394 Sales which is up 37% from 287, with an average price of $886,782 which is up 15% from July 2019.

The end of month listing inventory which is a good indication of the type of market currently being experienced shows 975 Active Residential Listings giving Hamilton 1 month of inventory, down 22% from July 2019. Burlington has 340 Active Residential Listings giving it 0.9 months of inventory, down 21%. The average days on the market is down from 29.3 to 20.1 in Hamilton and also went down in Burlington from 28 to 17. Right now the Hamilton-Burlington Area is sitting in a very strong Sellers Market, where the ratio of Homes Sold to Homes Listed is above 60%, currently sitting at 84.7%. In other words, 8.5 homes are sold for every 10 new listings. Note that this is the highest ratio we have seen since November 2019.

Homes Sold to Homes Listed Ratio: Buyers Market is below 40%, Balanced Market is between 40-60%, and Sellers Market is above 60%.

Hamilton's Average Year To Date Prices

The map below shows the current Year to Date Average Residential Prices. Some of the areas not included in the map are to the right:

When looking at the Average Prices in and around Hamilton, it is important to note how they have changed significantly over the last year and even now from month to month. If you are thinking of selling your house or condominium, get the most up to date, LOCAL information. A Market Evaluation and/or a Mortgage Pre-Approval done even a couple of months ago MUST be updated!

Burlington $849,413

Flamborough $916,638

Waterdown $726,648

Grimsby $650,751

Caledonia $583,347

Cayuga $608,033

Dunnville $466,606

Take note that “Average sale price is based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold through the RAHB MLS® System. Average sale price can be useful in establishing long-term trends, but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value.” What that means is, not every house or condo has increased in price by the same percentage. It is really important to talk to an experienced local REALTOR® to see EXACTLY what is happening in your particular neighbourhood. It is also important to find out what you can do to your house to get the highest amount possible when you are ready to sell!

In this Market, it is important that you know about the houses getting listed Immediately! Click Here to get set up on the Instant Listings Notification Search, otherwise, you will only know about listings once they are reported to the public sites. If you wait till you see it on Realtor.ca or other sites, it's too late, and is probably already SOLD!

MLS® Properties SOLD in July 2020

Note: Numbers of sales represents sales reported on properties listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS®) of the REALTORS Association of Hamilton-Burlington. Average sale price is calculated by dividing the total dollar volume of sales (not shown) by the number of sales in that month.