The Riz Team Blog

When you put your home up for sale, one of the best ways to determine the asking price is to look at comparable sales. There’s rarely a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, so a pricing decision often relies on comparisons to several recent sales in the area. Here are five criteria to look for in a sales comparison.

1. Location: Homes in the same neighborhood typically follow the same market trends. Comparing your home to another in the same neighborhood is a good start, but comparing it to homes on the same street or block is even better.
2. Date of sale: It varies by location, but housing markets can see a ton of fluctuation in a short time period. It‘s best to use the most recent sales data available.
3. Home build: Look for homes with similar architectural styles, numbers of bathrooms and bedrooms, square footage, and other basics.
4. Features and upgrades: Remodeled bathrooms and kitchens can raise a home’s price, and so can less flashy upgrades like a new roof or HVAC system. Be sure to look for similar bells and whistles.
5. Sale types: Homes that are sold as short sales or foreclosures are often in distress or sold at a lower price than they’d receive from a more typical sale. These homes are not as useful for comparisons.

SECOND STRONGEST SEPTEMBER FOR HOME SALES

KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON (October 3, 2019) ––526 residential properties sold through the Multiple Listing System (MLS® System) of the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS® (KWAR) in September, an increase of 17.7 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Home sales in September included 330 detached (up 20.4 per cent), and 38 condominium apartments (down 24 per cent). Sales also included 125 townhouses (up 34.4 per cent) and 33 semi-detached homes (up 10 per cent).

“This was the second strongest September for home sales we’ve had on record, and only the second time transactions exceeded 500 units in the month of September,” says Brian Santos, KWAR President.

Alongside the strong sales in September, average and median prices of all residential properties hit all-time highs.

The average sale price of all residential properties sold in September increased by 10.2 per cent to $541,850 compared to September 2018. Detached homes sold for an average price of $612,643 (an increase of 7.1 per cent compared to September of last year. During this same period, the average sale price for an apartment-style condominium was $335,110 for an increase of 3 per cent. Townhomes and semis sold for an average of $439,522 (up 16.3 per cent) and $459,588 (up 18.9 per cent) respectively.

The median price of all residential properties sold last month increased 12.6 per cent to $510,000 and the median price of a detached home during the same period increased by 10.9 per cent to $576,500.

The average days it took to sell a home in September was 22 days, which is three days fewer than it took in September 2018.

REALTORS® listed 811 residential properties in K-W and area last month, a decrease of 2.1 per cent compared to September of 2018, but an increase of 5.2 per cent in comparison to the previous ten-year average for the month of September. The total number of homes available for sale in active status at the end of September totalled 775, a decrease of 21.7 per cent compared to September of last year, and well below the previous ten-year average of 1,458 listings for September. Months Supply of Homes for sale stood at 1.6 months in September, which is 23.8 percent lower than the same period last year. The previous ten-year average months supply of homes for September was 3.16.

“Tight supply is the new normal,” says Santos. “We’ve been tracking under two months of supply for over three years now, and this has put steady upward pressure on prices.”

Santos says market conditions have made it especially challenging for first time home buyers, noting that all the major political parties have made policy commitments related to home buying going into the upcoming federal election.

Santos advises buyers work with a local REALTOR® who has a complete understanding of our region to give them an advantage in the highly competitive KW housing market.