‘Armageddon era’ thankfully waning, say realtors

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This article was published 25/09/2022 (724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

August market updates have given realtors a reason to believe Winnipeg’s housing market is normalizing, not crashing.

Manitoba’s capital saw 1,375 properties sold in August, down 15 per cent from a year ago when the city experienced a record-breaking month, selling 1,626 homes, according to a report by the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board.

During that time, the pandemic was still having its way with the market. The average sale price of homes and interest rates were lower, but, possibly most importantly, the city saw a 30 per cent deficit in active listings compared to 2020.

“So you had all this purchasing power and crazy amounts of demand but you had like 30 per cent less inventory of homes to buy, so that’s why anything that was out there was selling,” said Sandeep Singh, a fourth-year realtor with Royal LePage.

For that reason, Singh, 31, called the two-plus years of COVID-19 the “Armageddon era.”

But now the market is normalizing in more than one way. Winnipeg experienced a two per cent increase in new listings in August, while 63 per cent of single-family homes sold for under the list price (29 per cent went for above list price).

Singh said the market has been following this trend for upwards of four months now. Soaring interest rates, he explained, impacted prospective buyers’ purchasing power and ability, to a degree. Many people also aren’t as eager to spend money right now, as they continue to battle stubbornly high inflation in other areas of the economy, he added.

In the meantime, the once short supply of properties has just about evened the demand.

“Now, as we speak, the inventory and the supply of homes, it’s very close to catching up, if not has caught up with the active buyer demand,” Singh said. “So buyers now have a lot more choices to choose from. Your competition, your foot traffic, it’s dispersed among more properties in a selected area.”

“So instead of people looking at two houses, you now have the option to look at eight to 10.”

In 2021, a seller would typically garner at least 10 offers on their property, and upwards of 20-plus bids in some cases. Those numbers have dwindled significantly, leaving sellers to see no more than three offers in many cases.

Singh has found himself reminding sellers to be patient during these competitive times. In 2021, houses were nearly guaranteed to sell within the first seven days of being listed. The new normal, he said, is anywhere from 18 to 25 days.

“The market isn’t crashing, because activity is still happening,” said Singh, who deals with a lot of homes in the south end of the city. “People are still going to be buying and selling homes. It’s just not to the same frequency as we’ve seen.”

“A normalized market is a more fair, equal balance where buyers are now in a better position to negotiate and have more time to think. Back in the COVID era, the normal was you have to do things a certain way or you have literally zero chance of buying a house. Now the buyers have a lot more leverage.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca