The Renfrew County Real Estate Board figures for May 2021 are in, showing 262 homes sold – a sizeable gain of 12 percent on last May, despite an extreme shortage of supply. The average selling price for homes was $389,580, an advance of 34.5 percent from May 2020.
The more comprehensive year-to-date average price for a home sold in Renfrew County was $390,450, up sharply by 36.5 percent from the first five months of 2020. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled a record 1,149 units over the first five months of the year – a substantial gain of 74.1 percent from the same period in 2020.
These percentage increases are more modest than those of our neighbours to the north and south. North Bay Real Estate Board (including as far east as Mattawa) reported 187 home sales last month — more than double the levels from a year earlier, jumping 128 percent from May 2020 — and on a year-to-date basis North Bay experienced a jump of 85.3 percent from the same period in 2020. In Bancroft and Area (North Hastings), 69 units were sold in May representing an increase of 91.7 percent from the previous year, and a year-to-date home sales record of 238 units over the first five months of the year. This was more than double the levels from a year earlier, rocketing up 110.6 percent from the same period in 2020.
North Bay boasted a year-to-date average price of $385,258 representing an advance of 46.7 percent, while Bancroft and Area’s year-to-date average price was $534,447 a sharp rise of 61.3 percent from the first five months of 2020.
In Renfrew County, there were 323 new residential listings in May 2021 – a sizeable gain of 16.2 percent from May 2020 – but realtors continue to seek new properties to sell. The active residential listings numbered 281 units on the market at the end of May, a substantial reduction of 44.4 percent from the end of May 2020. Active listings haven’t been this low in the month of May in more than 15 years.
Martin,S.,Renfrew County Real Estate Board(2021,June16) May 2021 Stats [media release]
image: theatlantic
The hot market is being driven by ultra-low mortgage rates caused by the Bank of Canada’s monetary easing to support the economy during the Covid lockdowns plus the CERB etc was financed by a lot of federal borrowing and has injected huge amounts of liquidity into the realty market which is now chasing a shortage of houses for sale.
The B of C will start pushing up interest rates later this year as the Covid crisis subsides and the realty market will cool off although it might crash too. Much of the activity in Renfrew County is in the east within commuting distance of Ottawa.
A big unknown is what Doug Ford will do:- if he starts to austerize provincial government spending that will also cool things down a lot but perhaps he might not because he has an election approaching next year.