Weekly Wrap Up...Silver Lining on the Horizon

July 18th - 24th

The summer continues to fly by at break-neck pace; and for my friends and colleagues who have been begging for the return of live sports, they were able to watch Major League Baseball for the first time this year. With soccer back already, and hockey and maybe basketball coming back in the next week and a bit; there is some silver lining on the horizon, at least for sports fans. 

With Health Sciences North relaxing visitor restrictions and the official word as to Schools reopening plan next week; we are on the cusp of potentially bringing back a lot of normalcy to what’s been an abnormal 2020.

On to the stats for this week, it continues to be an active week, most accurately reflected by the current pending deals (28 conditional sold homes). New listings fell a bit from its 7 week high to 60 new homes this week; an optimistic sign that the market could be replenishing the listings to choose from.

Firm sales this week dropped again even from last week's 6-week low. Conditional sales continue to remain strong and when adding Firm sales with Potential sales the numbers still outpace the # of New Listings, but the difference between the two keeps getting smaller.

I commented last week on how the Multiple Offers didn’t seem to be as crazy, both in the number of them and in $ above asking price. This week it seemed the opposite. From a percentage view, it's the highest % of sales that were in multiple offers in weeks, and even the $ over listing price was shocking when I was reviewing the numbers this week. It is important to note that I believe both $ above list price and % of multiple offers will be lagging stats to a shift (balancing out in the market); its buyers who are full of FOMO (fear of missing out) that may be in a position to over-bid on homes and not realize the market may be slowing down.

I’ve chatted with multiple mortgage brokers this week who have commented to me that they are busier than they have ever been; but there has been a shift in their business from new approvals (people preparing themselves to buy), towards refinances (people tapping into increased equity in their homes). This may be anecdotal but it would line up with what I believe we are currently seeing unfold in the market (fewer buyers entering will ultimately ease the pressure of future bidding wars).

I had one client this week who made offers on 4 different places that may be seen as step-up home price points. In all first 3 cases, the sellers were very difficult to negotiate with and they sighted the chaotic marketplace as a rationale for them to be able to stay firm on their prices. Ultimately, we were able to get him something we saw as fair-value, but looking back at the first 3 homes, they are all still available at the time I am writing this. Sure they may sell in the next short while, but even in an extremely active market, the buyers have to agree with your value for a sale to happen.

The trend of Southern Ontario buyers coming up to our marketplace seems to be still continuing. I believe that as people go back to their version of normal life, they are finding ways to utilize technology to allow them to continue to work remotely and the need to be downtown at an office maybe once every few weeks instead of every day. The frustration of being cooped up in a concrete box, or on a postage stamp lot with a 1M+ mortgage seems its been enough to have some people re-think their current living situations.

There are a lot of changes being officially announced in the next few weeks. I know with 2 school-aged kids myself, I’ll be listening intently to the plans for schools to open up in the fall. With phase 3 officially going well in Sudbury and Ontario cases of COVID dropping to the lowest levels since March, it's a great sign for things in Sudbury and all of Ontario. Stay well and we’ll see you guys next week!