CORNWALL, Ontario – Cornwall and the surrounding United Counties of SD&G are seeing an unprecedented hot housing market favouring sellers.
“For the last 30 years we haven’t seen a sellers market like this,” said Troy Vaillancourt, owner of Century 21 in Cornwall.
Vaillancourt explained that thanks to low interest rates and low supply of housing stock in Cornwall, houses are being sold quickly often above asking price.
According to a social media from Century 21 the average housing price in August 2020 was $314,948 up by 34.3 per cent from the previous year.
“Just about every posting is getting multiple offers,” said Jen Blair Manley, of Royal Lepage Performance Realty in Cornwall, adding that often a listing would get between three to 12 offers. “Pre-COVID we already have an inventory problem.”
Vaillancourt stated that his company was holding off three or four days before accepting offers on listed properties to give multiple buyers a chance to submit their offer, as listings are often being sold within hours.
He went on to explain that there has been an increase in buyers from out of town, thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the desire not to be living in the close quarters of a large city. He added that the ability to work remotely made small towns like Cornwall more attractive to families than ever before.
“We are starting to see a lot of buyers from out of town now that they realize they can work from home,” said Vaillancourt adding that many of the out of town buyers he is seeing are from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) instead of nearby Ottawa or Quebec.
“COVID and remote working are making small towns attractive,” said Manley. “The first or second question we get from out of towners is how is the internet access.”
Manley added that this hot housing market is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t see this changing anytime soon,” she said. “We don’t have the supply to meet the demand, we just don’t. I don’t think anyone here has seen anything like this.”
