Home buyers continued to buy homes at amazing rates last month. We saw the highest recorded monthly sales for April in history; HOWEVER sales were not as high as they were in March 2021.
While April was still insanely good for sellers, sales were down SUBSTANTIALLY from last month. April 2021 sales were down 14 percent when compared to sales in March 2021. Over the last 10 days this slight shift seems to be a bit more pronounced. Earlier in April, activity was only slightly slower. However the last couple of weeks the change seemed more noticeable. For example, I had 2 new listings which, while they received offers, did not get the activity they likely would have seen 3 weeks ago. I have spoken with several realtors in the past week who have said the same thing. In 2 cases, realtors received only one offer on homes which, a month ago, would have sold with several offers. At this point we don't know if this is just a slight blip or the start of a slowing trend. I was on a webinar with Housing Minister David Eby this week. Many attendees seemed to think that the market is shifting as more buyers find homes or possibly decide to wait out this market. I think May will be interesting to watch.
Last month did still remain very seller favourable and for April 2021 we saw:
-sales of all types of homes were up a whopping 342.6% over April 2020. This is due in no small part to the fact that the real estate market came to a grinding halt mid way through March 2020 and had not yet recovered in April.
-sales of detached homes were up 130.6% over April 2020 (again, April 2020 was almost completely shut down so sales were very low last year).
-sales were down 14% compared to March 2021 (this may be a sign of things to come).
-sales were up 56.2% over the 10 year average for April (so despite a slowdown, still amazingly good for sellers).
-sales in April were the highest on record for April (so of course still very good for sellers).
-new listings were the HIGHEST on record for April (it's all supply and demand...supply is rapidly increasing). Having said that, the active listings for April were still 11.2% lower than the 10 year average for April, contributing to the strong sellers' market continuing for now.
-the benchmark price for detached homes was up 20.9% from April 2020. However this is an average and there are significant variations, higher and lower, depending upon where in the Province one is selling.
Obviously, most sellers are still doing very well when they sell...but I think time may be running out. Timing is EVERYTHING in real estate....and the best time to sell is when supply is low and demand is high...we still have low supply. However, as noted above, this past April we saw more new listings than ever before in April. In addition to this unprecedented number of new listings, the demand for homes also seems to be softening slightly. As we know from past markets, what starts as a gradual slowdown can become pretty dramatic quite quickly.
If you have been thinking of selling your home you may want to act fast! If you would like to discuss the current market (or anticipated future market) and how it may affect you, please let me know.