The real estate market is looking very promising heading into the spring months, and is expected to rebound in the Windsor-Essex area.
The Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors released an outlook on Monday, showing that due to interest rate stability, a strong local economy, and growing consumer confidence, it's expected that the market will bounce back for 2024.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Maggie Chen, President of WECAR, says those looking to purchase a home are feeling much more confident coming back to the market now that the numbers are starting to stabilize.
Interest rates have held steady in 2024, staying at a steady rate at 5 per cent in March, marking the fifth consecutive announcement where no change was made.
Chen also explains that more people are starting to look for a home, or sell their home, through a realtor once again, which saw a decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says people are feeling more confident to buy and sell.
"But after five announcements of the Bank of Canada to hold the interest rates, the most recent announcement was March 6, so no change to the interest rate. It's not going up, it's not going down, so it's stabilized."
Chen says things are looking good from both sides of the sales.
"So I think that both the buyer side, and the seller side, they are coming into this reality check. The buyers are more realistic about the purchase price, and the sellers are more realistic about the sale price as well. So that's when we got the sales, that's when we see the sales going up."
She says at this point there aren't very many new homes being built in the area.
"A couple of reasons like because of the cost of the material, the cost of the labour, and everything, and because the market at this point is still kind of quiet. I know that a lot of builders, they are hesitant to shovel the ground if there's no sales."
According to the province, Windsor missed its housing supply target of 953 housing starts in 2023. That means the city missed out on funding from the province for housing-related infrastructure.
While interest rates have held steady, the Bank of Canada is scheduled to make an interest rate announcement on April 10.
The average sale price for a home in February was $576,546.
-with files from AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides