Are million dollar homes in Oshawa flying off the shelves?

By Lindsay Smith/Real Estate Columnist

A few months ago, I wrote a column on how affordable Oshawa is for buying a home. Over the past week, I have done some research into homes selling above the $1,000,000 dollar mark. Let’s do a look back in time. In 2010, when I looked to see how many homes sold above the million, I was somewhat shocked, and not surprised. There was a total of 1 home that sold. I wanted to take some time and discuss what has been happening over the past two years.

We are in a pandemic and a real estate boom at the same time. That, for many seems counter intuitive. If you look at where the buyers are coming from to buy homes in Oshawa it would be easy to “assume” that most are coming from Toronto to capture the lower prices we have to offer, however that is just one component of our sales. Many locals are selling their current homes or buying their first properties.

When I look at Durham Region in it’s entirety, the average for a home as of last month was $740,000. One local area that seems to be skewing the numbers or spiking the Durham average values is Whitby. The average detached home in Whitby is $903,000, compare that average to Oshawa and you will find our average selling price is $685,000. What about the luxury home market in Oshawa? Have our values really spiked in the higher price ranges and how often are they selling. Here is what is happening in Oshawa in the $800.000 plus range and how they compare to 2019:

2019 Sales                                         2020 Sales (year to date)

$800,000 – $899,999                         64 Sales                                                                252 Sales

$900,000 – $999,999                         18 Sales                                                                96 Sales

$1,000,000  +                                      28 Sales                                                                51 Sales

 

We can see that the $800-900,000 range has become very active year over year. With only 64 sales in 2019 and then jumping to 252 this has been an amazing increase in this price range. (remember the 2020 numbers represent January to date. We still have over a month to finish 2020) The $900-$1M range has been equally as active with 78 more sale than last year. Above the million dollar mark, we have see just under a doubling of sales.

I will rant a bit, on comments made earlier this year by CMHC about the future of prices in Canada. CMHC predicted a drop in values between 9-18%. Not only has Oshawa seen an increase of 24 per cent year over year, but the luxury market is on fire.

We are seeing a clear message in the world of investing. (I firmly believe, when you buy a home to live in, you are investing for the future) The message is that investors are moving their investments into hard assets: gold, silver, platinum and yes, real estate.

My intuition is pretty loud and clear. We are in uncertain times and with a lack of clarity of the near future, people will continue to invest in real estate to both rent out and live in themselves. I can see the values continuing to increase over the next 2 quarters and come summer 2021, we will be seeing the average price for all types of homes much higher than they are today.

If  you have any questions about the above information, or if you can see a real estate emergency on the horizon, I can be reached at lindsay@buysellllove.ca

Lindsay Smith

Keller Williams Energy Ltd.