Kitchener-Waterloo housing prices drop for 2nd straight month

After reaching record heights in February, the average cost of buying a home in the area fell for the second straight month, according to the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors (KWAR).

The average cost of purchasing a house in April was $907,205, which is down around 13 per cent from March’s average cost of $960,181. The Kitchener-Waterloo market saw a record high of $1,007,109.

Detached homes played a large part in the dip as the average fell to $1,060,992, which is a drop of almost $200,000 over the past two months.

“Last month introduced a small measure of relief to the market,” KWAR president Megan Bell stated.

“While the number of sales remains strong, and sale prices continue to turn out robust annual gains, we’re seeing fewer multiple offers and more conditions on offers making their way back into the market.”

While the drop over the past two months may provide some relief to potential homebuyers, the prices are still well above April 2021, when the average home in the area sold for $757,906, while two years ago that number was $568,738.

“The trajectory the market was on was simply not sustainable, however, I want to emphasize it would be premature to draw any conclusions on just a single month’s activity. The housing market in Waterloo Region is still very much a sellers’ market, but sellers may need to adjust their expectations,” Bell said.

“We noticed this shift after the Bank of Canada’s recent rate increase reinforcing that it has been cheap money empowering too many buyers to chase after too few listings driving the market rather than anything else.”

By Kevin Nielsen  Global News