Housing market set to pop – again

By Reem Kodmany

Home prices in Windsor are expected to rise again this year, according to the RE/MAX 2019 Housing Market Outlook.

The outlook predicts homeowners can look forward to a 10 percent average sales price increase in 2019 – and local real estate agents said are looking forward to record numbers.

Real estate agent Terra Lavack thinks she’ll sell more than 300 homes in 2019, a figure equal to records set in 1980. Lavack said the “lack of homes increases the price” in the Windsor market, adding “there is a shortage” of homes being listed.

The Housing Market Outlook said the Windsor area posted Canada’s second highest average sales price gain in 2018 — a 13% increase over 2017. The average sale price last year was $299,750 compared to $264,750 in 2017, a $35,000 jump.

Lavack said economic growth is helping the market along with an influx of people coming to the area from Toronto and the GTA in search of a relatively lower priced home.

“If somebody sells $1 million dollars home in Toronto, they can purchase the same house (here) for $500,000,” she said, adding Windsor’s warmer climate also makes it attractive to retirees. “(It is) such a great city near to the border and great lakes with so many things to do,” she said.

“The new hospital, the new bridge …(these are) going to create more jobs for people.”

Lavack also said current borrowing rates are a factor. “The mortgage rates are still low for people to get a mortgage,” she said, although new rules have created some challenges. “Mortgage rules have become tighter, really more difficult. The lenders have made it tighter, bu tthe interest is still low and affordable.”

To read more about the 2019 Housing Market Outlook, click here.