Niagara has a buyers’ market as house prices have dropped year-to-year
Published October 6, 2023 at 10:10 am
When the Niagara Association of Realtors (NAR) released its September 2023 statistics on Wednesday (Oct. 4), there were a handful of numbers that confirmed it’s a buyers’ market in the region.
In September 2023, even though there were nearly 200 more houses up for grabs than the previous year, (1,366 compared to 1,177), there were fewer sales – 399 in 2022 versus 372 this year.
Not only that, the average listing price across Niagara dropped year-to-year from $659,800 in September 2022 to $651,700 this past month.
According to NAR President Amy Layton, that means it’s time to house hunt in Niagara. “We are continuing to see a dip in sales in September 2023 compared to August 2023 but an increase in new listings. The HPI (home price index) benchmark price has dipped a bit as well as 1.4 per cent since last month, indicating it’s a buyers’ market.”
However, Layton added that the trend wasn’t unusual for this time of year. “As people get back into their life and school routines in September, this is expected. The last quarter of the year is usually busier as people are hoping to move before the holiday season and winter. We’ll see what October brings.”
Also of note was the disparity of prices from municipality to municipality in Niagara. While most town-city averages ran from the mid-$500,000 to lower-$600,000 range, Niagara-on-the-Lake was in a league of its own with the average listing price being $1,061,900 in September.
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Below are last September’s numbers compared to this September, broken down for the 12 municipalities.
