Real estate in Thunder Bay is a seller’s market right now and shows no signs of changing course.
Local Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation market analyst Warren Philp said there were around 165 residential listings in Thunder Bay over the first two months of 2012. Compared to four years ago when there were 600, the market is heating up quite a bit.
“It would only take reasonable amount of demand to put some pressure on the supply that’s there,” Philp said. “Over the past few years we’ve seen bidding wars for listings that come up and prices that have been escalating.”
The average price for a home in the city has shot up 30 per cent in the last five years to $165,000 right now, and with an expected six per cent increase this year and 5.5 per cent in 2013, that trend is going to last Philp said.
“We’re probably one of the strongest markets in the country for year over year price gains right now.”
While new housing starts have been reasonable – 204 in 2010 – Philp said there hasn’t been much movement in the resale market.
His theory is that baby boomers are staying in their homes.
“A lot of those people have done the bulk of purchasing and building that they’re going to do in this market and they’re into a house where they want to stay for awhile,” he said.
Re/Max First Choice Realty Thunder Bay broker Gordie Garriock said while it’s an exciting market right now, there just aren’t homes to go around for the amount of buyers out there.
“We don’t have enough homes on the market at the moment to give people a real choice of looking. They get very frustrated,” she said.
There are a lot of opportunities to build a new home but not everyone wants to build or can’t afford it Garriock said. Low interest rates are also getting more people into the market.
“When you hear that the market is flattening out in these other larger centres it’s not flattening out here by any means,” she said.
