Collingwood Real Estate Market Update – October 2020

The Western Region of Southern Georgian Bay once again set record highs for the number of sales in the region.

The unrelenting pace and demand for housing generated a substantial 65.2 % increase over October 2019 with an impressive 309 sales reported vs 187 sales for the same period last year. Only 263 new listings came to market in October 2020 compared to 320 last October. This represented a 17.8 % decrease year over year and clearly illustrated the ongoing supply crunch the region has been experiencing. The result of sales increasing and fewer new listings coming to market drove active listings down 57.3 %, from 675 at month’s end in October 2019 to a meagre 288 in October 2020.

Months of Inventory was at a low of 0.9 months, further evidence of the historically low supply and very tight market conditions. Given the insufficient number of properties for sale vs the ongoing, frenzied demand, along with the appetite for many people with big budgets to purchase higher priced homes, it was no surprise that the average sale price in the Western Region reached a record high of $739,990 in October 2020, boasting a 29.4 % increase over last year’s already lofty average sale price. This trend of extraordinarily high sale prices combined with the persistent strong demand propelled the dollar volume for October up 113.9 % over last year. The Sales to New Listings Ratio doubled from a balanced market of 58.4 in October 2019 to 117.5, a true testimony that the red hot Seller’s market the Region has been experiencing this year was still at play. Buyers on the other hand were feeling the pressure, with the median days on market reported at 18 days.

Buyers were often forced to make quick decisions and submit unconditional offers while competing in multiple offer situations. With the pandemic creating such unprecedented conditions this year, the question that remains on everyone’s mind is how much sizzle is left in this market. There are forces currently at play such as low interest rates creating opportunity and desire for many to purchase in the Western Region of Southern Georgian Bay, counterbalanced by anxiety of what stricter measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus may bring. We will have to wait and see how people react in these precarious times.