Some eastern GTA communities bucking Ontario trend with homes selling above asking

It’s a buyer’s market in most of the GTA, with nearly all municipalities seeing a majority of homes sell for less than the listed price, but three communities in Durham Region are defying the trend.

In Oshawa and Ajax more than half the homes (52 per cent) sold this year have been changing hands for at or above the listed price, according to first quarter analysis from digital real estate platform Wahi analysis of home sales data.

Home sale prices in Clarington were split at 50 per cent with those selling for less. In every other GTA town and city, the lion’s share of homes ended up selling below asking.

Wahi compared sold and list prices in all 25 of the GTA’s municipalities, as well as the City of Toronto’s six former boroughs, to rank a total of 30 communities by the percentage of below-asking sales in each.

The fact that a handful of communities in Durham are outperforming the rest of the region is at least partly a story of affordability, suggests Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen.

“Durham has long been known for its relative affordability in the GTA,” he said. “While some homebuyers appeared to be standing on the sidelines with concerns over the economy, it looks like Durham buyers continued to take advantage of lower price points even if they paid over-asking.”

Oshawa had the second-lowest median sale price, including condos and houses, at $753,300.

Only Brock Township in Durham had a lower median price of $740,000, but there, 85 per cent of homes were selling under-asking – the third highest share of any municipality. Brock also had the fewest sales of any municipality in Q1at 27. “That’s not enough activity to draw any conclusions about the local market,” Katchen noted.

If affordability is boosting sale prices in pockets of Durham, high price points appear to be doing the opposite elsewhere, the Wahi report declared. King (89 per cent) and Caledon (87 per cent) saw the highest shares of homes selling for a price reduction, and both are on the higher end for prices.

King’s median price was $1,817,500 in Q1, the highest in the GTA by a wide margin. The next most expensive municipality was Oakville ($1,275,000), which placed fourth for below-asking sales at 81 per cent.

While Ajax and Oshawa remained relatively stable in Q1 compared to the same time last year, the share of homes with reduced prices did rise marginally. In Ajax, it climbed by three percentage points and in Oshawa by five percentage points.

Ajax and Oshawa had the lowest share of homes selling for under asking for both detached homes (45 per cent and 47 per cent) and condos (60 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively).

Note that even in these more resilient Durham markets, most condo buyers were able to purchase a unit at an amount lower than it was listed for.

The detached segment has held up better generally. In six communities, including Toronto’s Scarborough and York areas, most detached homes commanded a higher sale price than listed.