Niagara real estate market bouncing back compared to other parts of Canada

As multiple real estate markets across the country deal with the lack of real estate inventory, Niagara region’s numbers are looking good, leaning towards a buyer’s market, according to real estate officials.

As multiple real estate markets across the country deal with the lack of real estate inventory, Niagara region’s numbers are looking good, leaning towards a buyer’s market, according to real estate officials.

The report from online real estate firm Zoocasa looked at the hottest buyers’ and sellers’ markets of spring 2023 across Canada concluding despite the country having the lowest available housing inventory across all markets – 1.8 months of available inventory – some markets are tilting closer to a buyer’s market with more inventory than potential home buyers.

Niagara region topped the list as one of the best markets in Canada with a sales-to-new-listings ratio (SNLR) of 42 per cent, an almost 50 per cent drop year-over-year from 2022, showing Niagara region as a balanced market.

To be considered a buyer’s market, according to the report, the SNLR would have to be below 40 per cent, meaning more listings than buyers, denoting more options and ability to haggle conditions such as closing price.

Amy Layton, 2023 president for the Niagara Association of Realtors agreed stating Niagara region was in a balanced market, where it would benefit buyers and sellers to negotiate to come to terms on the sale of real estate.

“We’re headed into a balanced market, looking at sales, at this point, I’m looking at it month-over-month, this time last year, we started to change about May and June,” she said.

“We’re still seeing quite a gap because that craziness and much inflated prices happening at the beginning of the year.”

Layton added listings between March and April of this year fell by about 70 listings, which includes all housing types.