How is the Real Estate Market Doing These Days?

As I’ve discussed in past videos, we are still in a strong seller’s market where we have far more buyers looking for homes than we have homes for sale.  The result of this is high demand, back-to-back showings, lots of offers on offer day, and generally homes selling for over asking price.

BUT – we are starting to see some small movements to indicate that there may be a shift coming in the market.  Don’t panic, there isn’t going to be a crash and home prices are not going to tank, and I really don’t think we’ll be in a balanced market ANYTIME soon, but we are seeing small shifts.   And here are 3 of the shifts that I’m noticing:

1. We are seeing a small increase in the number of listings daily – while we’re not seeing 50 or 100 new listings every day in Oshawa and Clarington, we are seeing a consistent, albeit small climb in new listings every week.  Today, Wed Feb 24, we have 20 new listings in Clarington, and 26 new listings in Oshawa and it’s only mid-day. 

2. We are seeing fewer offers on offer day – while in January, it wasn’t uncommon to see 15-20, I even saw 31 offers on 1 property, we are now seeing some listings sell with 3-5-7 offers.  I did still see one the other night with 14 offers, but we are seeing single digit offer numbers.  Again, still having 3-5-7 offers on your house is great, it’s a bit of a drop from the numbers we were seeing in January.

3. We are seeing a shift in how offers are being dealt with.  What we’ve been seeing is a house is listed say on a  Tuesday and holding offers the following Tuesday when the agent will meet with their client with a stack of offers. What we are seeing now is a lot of agents are still holding offers, but some are allowing early, or pre-emptive offers, and also some listings that are asking for a 72 hour irrevocable, which is a softer way of holding offers.  An offer with a 72 hour irrevocable allows the seller 72 hours to have to respond to the offer and also gives other parties time to submit their offer as well, so again, a softer, less in your face way of holding offers.

It’s been a busy first two months of 2021 and it will be interesting as we continue to move into and through March to see if these numbers continue and what new trends emerge.  What continues to hold true is that real estate is a great way to build wealth, the market remains to be very strong and the Durham region continues to be a sought-after place to live, grow and raise your family.  These things are not changing.

If you are thinking about buying or selling, have any questions about the real estate market or all things real estate, Just call Crystal.  905 263 4412.