As I write this month’s article, we are in prime holiday season. It’s nice to see people head to the cottage, finally meeting up with friends and family, and enjoying the local patios. And even though I admittedly sleep, eat and breathe real estate, it’s also nice to NOT hear everyone talk about real estate all the time :). Enjoy life, forget about real estate at least for a bit… well, after you read this article. I will take a holiday sometime soon too, I promise. Yes, I’m a workaholic, but I love what I do.

This month, I would like to introduce Kris Butler to the team. Welcome Kris! So now we have a Kris and a Chris on the team. Just a little confusing in the office sometimes. Kris has been a long time Centre Wellington resident and we knew from the moment we met him that Kris would be the perfect fit for our small, tight knit team. As a licensed realtor, Kris will help take our client focused team to an even higher level in our ever changing and competitive business. As anyone who knows me, you know I always strive to be the best, and Kris will play an important role for our team in that regard. We are also making some other exciting changes here at our office to give us the behind-the-scenes client service support we need to excel as Centre Wellington’s top realtors. So – more to come.

Last month, I was hopeful when it looked like we were maybe going to start building some inventory as the number of homes for sale in Centre Wellington started to increase over 60 units, but here we are again back down to the low 40 unit range. While there is still a lot of unpredictability in the market, it looks like low inventory will be a recurring theme and will be a main driver of the market moving forward. While the frenzied market of early 2021 is gone, low inventory means it will still be a seller’s market as we move into the last half of 2021.

More buyers will also return to the market in September, so I see a very active fall (if we have enough inventory of course). In other words, September and October will be good months to list your home – assuming you have somewhere to move to. This is another recurring theme; I have several clients wanting to sell, but unless they are moving out of area (and many are), finding them a new home is a difficult part of the puzzle. On a side note, clients moving out east continues to be an ongoing trend. Prices have gone up considerably out east as well, but overall pricing remains much more affordable than here in our part of Ontario. Another trend is the number of homes selling without actually coming to the open market (i.e. never make it to realtor.ca for you to see) – where we put the buyer and seller together off market. I will talk more about this in a future article.

Of the 43 active listings in Centre Wellington, 16 are over $1.2 million. Sales of higher end in town/subdivision properties have generally been a bit slower lately, but the demographic buying in this price range may be enjoying their cottage I suspect, so that will be part of what is going on there at the moment. Having said that, our team just set a new high price sale over $1.8 million in Fergus (congratulations Amanda Lirusso), to go along with the new high price sale of $2.1 million Erica Voisin & I just set in Elora the month before. Our other Chris (Mochrie) has been selling up a storm in Guelph and area this year – including setting a new condo high price sale. There is only one resale condo for sale in Centre Wellington right now, and only two bungalows priced under $1 million – so we definitely need more inventory to sell in those categories. And we have had a chronic lack of country properties on acreage for sale all year; a good time to sell if you have that type of property. Further, as I touched on last month, homes suitable for generational living or offer income potential from an accessory apartment are in demand as well.

But that’s enough real estate news for now – enjoy the rest of the summer!

Take care,

George