Ajax homes changing hands after just 11 days on market; Oshawa 13 days – real estate study

Stable mortgage rates and a pause in interest rate hikes has led to more home buyers stepping into a “more certain market” and prompting a resurgence in house sales, according to a study by online real estate company Zoocasa.

Leading the charge in the suddenly hot again real estate market is Ajax and London, with homes changing hands on average after just 11 days on the market last month.

Last year when interest rates were on the rise, many buyers took to the sidelines to wait out the market until they had some “clarity” on its direction, the report declared. This spring, many sideline buyers finally felt they had waited long enough.

Oshawa and Newmarket are next on the list, with homes in those communities selling after just 13 days on the market, followed by Pickering, Markham and Milton at 14 days. Waterloo is at 15 days and Whitby rounds out the top 10 at 16 days.

According to Zoocasa, which analyzed 23 cities across Ontario to find out where homes were moving the quickest, homes are selling twice as fast as they were six months ago.

There’s also a large supply issue, meaning that what little supply is available has competition, so buyers are having to move a little quicker to snap up their ideal home. In Ajax last month, where homes are selling for $1.033 million on average, there were just 1.2 months of available inventory and 123 homes sold out of 245 available.

In Oshawa, where homes sell for $854,822 on average, 228 homes changed hands of 507 on the inventory list. One-hundred and seventy properties in Whitby ($1.1 million) sold (out of 341 listed) and 125 houses sold in Pickering ($1.13 million) out of 226 available.

Zoocasa last analyzed the property days on market issue in January. The shortest amount of time homes were on the market then was 25 days. This time there are just two cities – Caledon and Niagara Falls – where properties are spending more than 25 days on market.