Average price passed $1M

Ep6. The average price in Durham passed $1M.
Jan 2022 market update
Are you curious about the real estate market in GTA, especially Durham and Oshawa?
Every month, I analyse the GTA, Durham, Oshawa markets and post a one-page report on my website and explain it on YouTube.
Today, we will look at the current market condition by analysing the market data up to the month of December 2021.
In order to understand the market trends accurately, let’s look at the overall market situation of GTA, then the Durham area, and finally, we will check the Oshawa market. I believe that looking at the big picture and then details will help you get a better understanding of the market. At the end, we will look at the number of sales data for the last three years from January to December by month. It will show the seasonality and how it has changed since COVID.
First, let’s take a look at a graph showing the state of the GTA market in ‘December’ over the past five years. The red line shows the number of sales and the blue bar shows the average price. Compared to December 2020 one year earlier, the number of sales in GTA has decreased by 16% and the average price increased by about 24% making it about $1.16 million dollars.
In February of 2021, the average GTA price went over $1 million for the first time, and in ten months time, another $160,000 has been added to this number. What a market we are in!
Let’s look at the last 24 months in detail through a graph that shows the sales number and the average price by month for the past two years. Similarly, the red line shows the sales volume and the blue bar shows the average price. December 2021 saw a 33% decrease in sales number and a 0.5% decrease in house prices compared to the previous month.
The 33% seems a very high drop. But as you will see in a later graph, it is normal that you see a big drop in December. As Canadians, we don’t want to work in December. Everything is slow in December. Right?
Now, let’s take a look at Durham. This graph represents December data for the last 5 years . If you compare December 2021 to December 2020, the sales volume is down 13% and the average price is up about 33% to roughly $1,033,000. I repeat it is about $1,033,000
This is the first month that the average price in Durham has passed the $1 million dollar mark. I am not sure if it is something we should celebrate or not.
Let’s take a look at the graph that details Durham’s trend over the past two years, month by month. If you compare December to November, the sales have decreased by 34% and the average price increased by 3%.
How about Oshawa, then?
Compared to December 2020 one year earlier, the number of sales in Oshawa has decreased by 9% but the average price increased by about 41% making it about $913,000 dollars. The Oshawa average price in December of 2020 was about $649,000. One year later, it is not $913,000. That is a big jump.
Finally, let’s look at the number of sales data for the last three years from January to December by month. Blue line shows the number of sales in 2019, the yellow line for 2020 and the red line for 2021. As you can see the market is usually slow in December.
Like I said, it is usual that less people participate in buying and selling of real estate in December in general. That was true in December 2021 as well.
However, what I witness as a realtor is that I see a lot of competitions for a small number of available properties. I’ve seen 19 offers on a property and 24 offers on another property last week. I predict that we will face this kind of competition in the foreseeable future, which is inevitable considering that there is not enough housing supply when there is a lot of demand.