Guelph Values Still Growing!
The Canadian Real Estate Association has a new method to test the housing sector’s performance, and the first set of results show that real estate prices are up 5.2% in January versus January 2011, and up 0.27% month-over-month.
Currently the new method is incorporating information from 5 markets across Canada, so the numbers can be a little misleading, even though they represent about half of all the real estate activity in the country.
Real Estate prices and sales are largely based upon regional factors. The key drivers tend to be Demographic and Financial in nature. One key driver of the real estate cycle is net migration: the more people moving into an area the stronger prices will be. So whether the average prices are up across Canada or not is irrelevant to you in your home market. Focus on the key drivers in your area to get a sense for where prices are headed.
Guelph will see about a 1% increase in its population this year. While that may not seem like a lot, when you compound that over 5 years you will see the city grow by about 5%. That’s significant and a good sign for our area’s real estate sector. Over the past 5 years Guelph has continued to see price increases. Next week we will touch on vacancy rates as a sign for where prices are headed.
Written By:
Chris Bisson
