Real estate in Windsor-Essex has been a rollercoaster ride over the past few years and in January, the wild ride continued.
From January 2022 to January 2023, the number of homes sold dropped by nearly 47 per cent, marking the 11th straight month the region has reported a drop in sales, according to WECAR.
The average sale price was also down nearly 20 per cent to $516,117, down from $636,422 just a year prior.
“Early ‘22, that was not normal pricing,” said Dan Gemus, a Windsor-Essex Realtor. “That was the peak and it was crazy. It was getting a little out of hand.”
Gemus points to many factors which have contributed to the cooling market, including many listings, a stereotypically slow Winter and climbing interest rates.
“We've had, what, eight rate hikes now?” said Gemus. “And people, as the rates have gone up, have said wait a second. Before I buy a house, should I wait to see if these rates are going to go any higher?”
But now that interest rates seem to have peaked for now, Gemus predicts prices will hold steady or mildly increase throughout the year. But he’s not quite ready to declare this a buyer’s market.
“We're just going back to those normal times, which is not a bad thing,” he said. “It's good for buyers and quite frankly, for sellers. Prices have gone up so much in Windsor Essex over the last four or five years that unless you purchased in the last year, you're still gonna make a return on your investment.”
After a recent uptick in buyer action, Gemus expects the spring to bring out even more buyers and sellers.
Agents are now listing homes close to what they hope to sell them for and Gemus predicts you aren’t likely to see many bidding wars like you did a year ago.
The bigger challenge, Gemus said, will be managing seller expectations when they choose to list.
“They're still hoping to get you know, the spring 2022 prices, when that's not happening,” said Gemus. “They're getting discouraged. So I think it's up to us as an industry in real estate to educate our sellers on what they can expect in a market like this.”
A grand jury in Manhattan has voted to indict Donald Trump -- the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Ottawa Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser, the second such incident involving one of his top aides in recent months.
This Sunday, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will announce the four astronauts that will be blasting off to fly around the moon for the Artemis II mission, one of whom will be a Canadian astronaut.
When two skiers collided on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016, no one could foresee that seven years later, the crash would become the subject of a closely watched celebrity trial.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
A scientist at CAMH says video games have similar addictive features to gambling which cause social isolation of the individual and dependency on the activity.
A grand jury in Manhattan has voted to indict Donald Trump -- the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
When the store manager at La Noisette Bakery arrived Thursday morning to open the small shop on Oxford Street, she discovered that one of the two large circular windows at the side of their building was shattered.
Georgian Bay Township man Sigfrid Stahn has been found guilty of impaired driving causing death in the 2020 Highway 12 crash that claimed the life of 77-year-old Midland man Guenter Naumann.
Dog kennels are bursting at the seams as pet owners forced to give up their furry friends struggle with risings costs of living. Despite a rise in cat and kitten adoptions, dog adoptions are down by over 50 per cent.
There are exciting plans for Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Sudbury. Built in 1927, the former church was sold after its congregation dwindled and will be transformed into a concert hall.
Ottawa Police are investigating an attempted break-in at the residence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser, the second such incident involving one of his top aides in recent months.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Premier Doug Ford is slamming federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault as a “real piece of work” in the wake of public remarks he made suggesting that Ontario has “no plan to fight climate change.”
Just a week after Airbnb tightened regulations for Quebec listings following a deadly fire, hosts may already be bending the rules. Airbnb now requires its hosts to provide a six-digit policy number with their listing, obtained when a tourist lodging is registered with the provincial government. But a scroll through the Airbnb website suggests users are falsifying their permit numbers to sneak past the authentication process.
A grand jury in Manhattan has voted to indict Donald Trump -- the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
A proposed class-action lawsuit over infamous brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital was before Quebec's highest court Thursday, as victims attempted to remove immunity granted to the United States government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Vowing changes will come, here's what Trudeau said in Truro, N.S.
Gun policy comments made by then-RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki in a contentious call to Nova Scotia RCMP officers after the mass shooting in 2020 did not amount to political interference, the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) final report concludes.
Two Manitoba hunting outfitters have been fined thousands of dollars and lost their licenses after a four-year investigation revealed numerous violations of the wildlife act.
A grand jury in Manhattan has voted to indict Donald Trump -- the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
A candidate for the United Conservative Party in southern Alberta has resigned after she posted a video claiming children are being exposed to pornography in schools.
Three Calgary men face multiple charges after a police investigation that targeted drug traffickers resulted in the seizure of more than $250,000 in drugs, firearms and various rounds of ammunition, other weapons and drug paraphernalia.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has yet to answer direct questions about a growing scandal of her alleged interference with the justice system, but her deputy premier has responded the media about the issue.
The Alberta government has revealed plans for some of the $211 million it will spend over the next three years expanding and improving parks, campgrounds and recreation trails.
The Canadian Pharmacists Association says protecting Canadian drug supplies from mass exportation to the U.S. market remains a priority in light of British Columbia's recent move to limit sales of the diabetes drug Ozempic, which has been hyped as a weight-loss treatment.
Indicators of the spread of COVID-19 in B.C. continued their upward trend this week, with the number of people hospitalized with the disease hitting its highest level since Jan. 12.
