While experts are suggesting Canada's real estate market is expected to soften in 2013, local agents believe that won't be the case in Cornwall and area.
Jacques Perreault, incoming president of the Cornwall and District Real Estate Board, told Seaway News in an interview the city and area will likely build on a farily solid 2012 this year, while other regions will see the correction of massive price jumps that larger centres have seen.
"We've got a really good market in this city," said Perreault, who pointed to the addition of hundreds of jobs at a new Target distribution centre in the city as one reason to be optimistic. "In Cornwall, because of our economic situation, it's not the same as it was 20 years ago. It's very positive."
That's not the case in larger centres across the country where real estate prices are expected to soften along with the market - especially in places like Toronto and Vancouver where the price of homes and condos has skyrocketed in recent years.
"We don't really experience the high peaks and low valleys," said Henrietta Duvall, co-owner of Exit Realty in Cornwall. "We've never had a decrease in average home values."
Last year the price of homes in Cornwall rose by about eight per cent, according to figures produced by the real estate board.
An average home in Cornwall cost about $174,000 and 1,450 residential units were sold in 2012 - an increase of 3.65 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.
"For mid-range prices we're in good shape," said Perreault.
Typically, in Cornwall, it takes between a month a six weeks to sell a home that is competitively priced, agreed the agents.
