The increase in Barrie home prices is outpacing rises in the Toronto residential real-estate market and other surrounding cities.
The price of a Barrie-area home in 2021 jumped more in a year than in other cities surrounding Toronto, according to the Mortgage Professionals Canada’s March edition of the Semi-Annual State of the Housing Market report.
It notes that while the country’s largest cities saw significant price growth in 2021, a noticeable exodus from the major cities resulted in prices in other, outlying cities increasing even more.
It noted a rapid price growth across Ontario, with outlying cities far outpacing the price increases in Toronto.
The Barrie & District Association of Realtors reported that the average price of a home sold in Barrie in February 2022 was $963,554, an increase of 36 per cent compared to the same month in 2021.
The average price in Toronto was $1,334,544, which is up 27.7 per cent.
A further examination of the average price in February 2022 over two years showed a jump of 86 per cent in Barrie, when compared to the average price of $518,198 in February 2020.
While local real-estate agents are seeing a continued influx of people to the area, there are early indications that March is showing a normalization of the market, said Sarah Stevens, an Orillia-based real-estate agent and Georgian College economics instructor.
In Simcoe County, the average price of a detached house in January was $1.076 million, increasing to $1.109 million in February and levelling back at $1.076 million so far in March, she notes.
Stevens suspects economic factors such as the sudden increase in the cost of living and international conflict are now coming into play.
But there’s also buyer fatigue.
People who are getting into the market for the first time, those who are downsizing and investors, she said are all competing for the lower price point, causing that pressure to drive prices up. But as residential real estate prices increase, fewer and fewer people are then able to access that market.
The result is fewer buyers are shopping and making offers, she said.
“Right now is a good time for buyers to come back to the table,” she said. “A lot of buyers got spooked off because... there’s 10 offers, 15 offers, 20 offers. Well, now there’s a handful, so they’re competing with maybe one other party in those lower price points.
“We have lost a few buyers along the way, so that’s one thing that’s happened.”
Sellers should be reasonable with their expectations, she says.
