A Royal LePage broker feels "uncertainty" over the economy is having an impact on the housing market in Windsor-Essex.
The Royal LePage 2025 Consumer Confidence Survey found 50 per cent of people in the Windsor area are not confident in the economy, while 43 per cent were somewhat confident.
The survey also asked if the trade dispute with the United States caused you to postpone your plans to buy a home this year. 80 per cent said they were not planning to buy a home this year, while seven per cent said they had postponed plans.
Frank Binder, broker of record at Royal LePage Binder Real Estate, says we are still a very affordable area and the prices have been relatively stable with a good supply of inventory on the market.
But he points to the uncertainty around the tariffs and the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump as a big factor impacting the housing market.
Binder says the demand and willingness to buy a house are there.
"The easiest way for me to describe it is people are going to open houses, there's all kinds of activity and people looking at houses, they're just not pulling the trigger and buying them," he says.
Binder says uncertainty in the market is holding back people from buying a home, specifically in our area, because we are one of the more volatile areas when it comes to tariffs.
"Until we get more clarity going forward, that's exactly what we're going to see in our business, that people are going to just pause; it's the safe thing to do, and I'm going to get this right. So what we're seeing is people just holding on," he says.
Binder says the Stellantis plant shutdown really set the tone for Windsor and put us in a state of flux.
"As long as that flux is here, there is no clarity; it's cloudy, the future is cloudy. I don't blame anybody who is in a situation where they want to buy a house, making sure I understand what the future is going to bring before I make the largest decision to buy. It's as simple as that," he says.
According to the Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Forecast released Tuesday, the median price for a single-detached family home was $527,300 in the first quarter of 2025, down 2.3 per cent compared to the same time a year ago.
The national median price was $868,700, a 2.8 per cent increase year-over-year.