Hamilton Is Up Almost 10%

by Darrin DeRoches February 13 - 19, 2014

The numbers are in for the first month of the year and they are great. The real estate market in Hamilton – Burlington increased by 9.3 per cent for the month of January. This is an almost 10 per cent increase in the price of your home from a year ago. This, plus the number of listings went down by 9.5 per cent in the same period, creates a greater demand for quality properties where people are willing to pay a little more so they do not lose out. The month of January was bitterly cold and even this did not slow down our strong market. The average sale price is now $395,445 and that alone is huge news and I would bet we will hit $400,000 by March.     The interesting part about all of this is trying to convince Hamiltonians that their home is worth more than they think. Ninety percent of the time the home owner thinks their home is worth more than it really is. I had two different clients this week that I had to convince to raise their price since the market will pay it.    One client had their property appraised by a bank and it came in at $200,000. He figured if he was to sell, he could at least break even and walk away with no debt. I had to explain to him that the number the bank will finance is not the number the market will pay. I know we can get at least $20,000 more than the appraisal and since his property is located in a desirable area, it can probably go up to $229,000 – if we list it now. The other client contacted me about six months ago about listing their condo and asked for advice on what to improve before putting it on the market. We discussed all of the simple upgrades from new appliances, to paint and a new sink in the bathroom. At this time they were happy to list it at $149,900 and we waited for them to do the improvements. I went there yesterday to take a look at the upgrades which cost them about $2000 dollars in total and we pulled the comparables and realized the market will now bring an asking price of $159,900.     There is no competition in the market for this area or product and if we wanted to push it we could ask even higher but they want to sell fast and buy a new home – before the prices jump again. Usually we are trying to convince people to lower their prices and be realistic but the opposite is true in today’s market. This being said, you still have to be realistic and take the comparables from last year, add 10 per cent and you will be selling fast and getting top dollar! The cold has not dampened the market and it is paying the highest returns we have ever seen so give us a call if you are considering selling and reap the rewards of a strong market. V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at sold@uniquerealty.ca.