Jill's December Market Report

As we quickly approach the Holiday Season with less than 7 days before Christmas, I wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. I hope you are enjoying your time with family and friends. I know it's a time of parties, festivities and get-togethers with friends and families and the fun never stops. But, our team also likes to take the time to help out those in need in my community. I'm so proud of my team for all of their hard work with the coat drive for the homeless and the food bank drive in Newmarket, Tottenham & Stouffville. We collected over 200 coats and warm clothes for those in need and everyone in our neighbourhoods donated over 900 lbs of food to the local food banks.

I know that the Real Estate Market has been like a roller coaster over the past few year with prices and activity going up and down and then up and down again. On top of that, the last 21 months saw the Bank of Canada rapidly increase its policy rate from 0.25% in March 2022 to 5%, bringing higher prime rates and variable and adjustable mortgage rate. That was in response to a high inflation rate, reaching a 30 years high of 8.1% in June 2022, which brought one of the most aggressive interest rate hikes in Canada's history. Inflation has cooled since June 2022 and reached 3.1% in November 2023. The path to lower inflation has been painful for debt holders and those with Variable Rate Mortgages. But, the banks are now starting to offer some lower rates with hopefully a reduction in the Bank of Canada rate by the Spring of 2024.

According to the November 2023 Market Watch Report, sales were down on a year-over-year basis while listings were up. With more choices for buyers, selling prices remained basically flat year-over-year. The average selling price was down 2.2% month-over-month but it some areas, such as Georgina, it was down by 5.66%. The higher that prices increased in an area, the more of a drop in price you will see.

There have been some major changes in the real estate industry, which I will go over in later blogs. All of these changes are for the benefit of the consumer and to raise to level of professionalism in our industry.

Once again, Happy Holidays from all of us at the Jill Renshaw Real Estate Team!

- Jill Renshaw, Broker