If you're looking to sell your house, there may be no better time than the present to put it on the market.
Prices are high and inventories are low in Waterloo Region, with multiple offers and quick sales becoming more and more common this spring.
And although analysts with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. are forecasting that home sales and prices will both remain strong through 2016, there's a belief that prices won't rise nearly as quickly next year.
"We'll more than likely see a pretty significant deceleration in price growth," Ted Tsiakopoulos, the corporation's Ontario regional economist, said at a Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors luncheon on Wednesday.
So far this year, the resale market in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo census metropolitan area has seen sales rise 13.9 per cent and prices jump 6.6 per cent over last year's numbers, said Erica McLerie, a senior market analyst with the agency.
Growth is especially strong in properties priced above $350,000, a sign that the local market is becoming a more popular option for buyers being priced out of the Toronto area.
"The homes in Kitchener are, let's say, more affordable," McLerie said.
Listings, though, are in short supply, with April's statistics showing 29.4 per cent fewer active residential listings on K-W association's Multiple Listing System than in April 2015.
"The market is a bit of a two-headed beast," said association president Charlotte Zawada. "If you are a seller, this is a great time to sell."
This year, 33 per cent of association sales have gone above the asking price, while seven per cent have met that price.
While a multiple offer scenario might yield a surprisingly high price for a seller, it can lead to some anxious moments waiting to see if the buyer can secure the necessary financing, Zawada said.
Some prospective buyers might prefer to avoid this kind of market altogether, she said. High prices are also keeping some first-time buyers out of the resale market.
On the flip side, many baby boomers are working later in life and aren't moving — one of the reasons there aren't as many homes being listed, McLerie said.
New home sales are benefiting from the tight resale market, and even though new home prices are rising as well, it's not happening at the same speed as on the resale side, she said.
On the national resale scene, Ontario and British Columbia "are leading the pack in a big way when you look at regional activity," Tsiakopoulos said.
Ontario has seen broader strength, primarily in the southern and southwestern regions, while B.C. is very much a Vancouver story, he said.
Economic and employment growth in those two provinces is driving the market; it's a different story in places like Alberta and Atlantic Canada, Tsiakopoulos said.
While prices in Ontario and B.C. are expected to keep rising above the rate of inflation for the foreseeable future, any hike in interest rates would dampen sales activity, he said.
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