Waterloo Region Housing Market Sluggish in May 2024

I hope you are having a great start to June. My apologies for sending this out later than usual but I just got back from a week out on the east coast. My youngest son got married in Moncton on June 1st. The wedding couple looked beautiful and everyone that attended seemed to have a great time.

We also got news last week that rates have come down slightly. The Bank of Canada dropped the key overnight lending rate ¼ point to 4.75%. I don’t see a huge impact on the market just yet but it’s a good start to helping Canadians get into more affordable housing.

The stats are out for May in the Waterloo Region Real Estate market. The market showed signs of sluggishness mainly due to the condo market. Single detached sales were down slightly while the condo market was down quite substantially as a whole. Inventory levels have risen sharply which is giving buyers much more to choose from when they are looking to buy their next home. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

In May, a total of 742 homes were sold in Waterloo Region. This represents a decrease of 8.1 per cent compared to the same period last year and a decline of 20.0 per cent compared to the average number of homes sold in the previous ten years for the same month.

We saw a dip in the number of sales across all categories in May, with condo apartments experiencing the largest drop. The Condo market also had the greatest supply level, posing a challenge for sellers, especially for units with one or fewer bedrooms, where the current inventory level exceeds buyer demand.

Total residential sales in May included 467 detached (down 1.3 per cent from May 2023), and 134 townhouses (down 3.6 per cent). Sales also included 82 condominium units (down 34.4 per cent) and 59 semi-detached homes (down 13.2 per cent).

In May, the average sale price for all residential properties in Waterloo Region was $818,507. This represents a 0.3 per cent decrease compared to May 2023 and a 2.3 per cent increase compared to April 2024.

The average price of a detached home was $943,859. This represents a 1.9 per cent decrease from May 2023 and an increase of 0.4 per cent compared to April 2024.
The average sale price for a townhouse was $653,761. This represents a 6.1 per cent decrease from May 2023 and a decrease of 0.9 per cent compared to April 2024.
The average sale price for an apartment-style condominium was $459,260. This represents a decrease of 5.6 per cent from May 2023 and a decrease of 5.6 per cent compared to April 2024.
The average sale price for a semi was $699,780. This represents a decrease of 3.9 per cent compared to May 2023 and an increase of 5.1 per cent compared to April 2024.

Average Sale Price – Monthly

May2024_Monthly-Average-Sales-Price_By-Property-Type

MLS® Home Price Index Benchmark Price
	Kitchener-Waterloo			Cambridge
Benchmark Type:	May 2024	Monthly % Change	Yr./Yr. % Change	May 2024	Monthly % Change	Yr./Yr. % Change
Composite	$752,100	0.3	-4.2	$760,300	0.5	-4.0
Detached	$866,900	0.1	-3.4	$796,400	0.8	-4.3
Townhouse	$634,100	1.2	-1.0	$657,300	-0.1	1.4
Apartment	$458,200	0.6	-6.0	$495,900	-1.6	2.8

This spring, we are witnessing a significant increase in the availability of apartment-style condos, with a record high number of units on the market. At the same time, we are observing a shift in demand away from smaller-sized condo units, potentially influenced by the higher interest rates impacting investor market activity for this property type.

There were 1,644 new listings added last month, an increase of 28.9 per cent compared to May last year and a 15.8 per cent increase compared to the previous ten-year average for May.

The total number of homes available for sale in active status at the end of May was 1,741, an increase of 95.8 per cent compared to May of last year and 27.9 per cent above the previous ten-year average of 1,361 listings for May.

Market-wide inventory levels were up 93.8 per cent, with 3.1 months’ supply for all property types at the end of May. The property type that gained the most inventory was the condo apartment segment, which increased by 100 percent. That amounts to 6.0 months’ supply for condo apartments, 2.4 months for detached homes, and 3.6 months for Townhouses. The number of months of inventory represents the amount of time it would take to sell off current inventories at the current sales rate.

The average number of days to sell in May was 16, compared to 14 days in May 2023. The previous 5-year average is 15 days.