BY JASON THOMPSON
For some, selling a home may be a frustrating experience but for Dawn and Chris Powell the process couldn?t have been simpler or faster.
The sale of their three-bedroom bungalow on a half-acre Hanmer lot is a perfect example of recent trends in the Sudbury real estate market.
The Powells put their home on the market at around 1 pm and had their first viewing three hours later.
Within a couple hours an offer was put on the table, meeting the asking price of $130,000.
At the midway point of 2005, the total number of home sales in Sudbury was 1,298 with the projected totals at the end of the year expected to exceed 2,600 said Warren Philp, a Northern Ontario Market Analyst with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
With the number of new listings on the market declining, from around 6,700 in 1996 to 3,670 in 2003, there is a demand in the market.
This naturally sends prices up, said Philp pointing to a 6 percent price increase in the first six months of 2004 versus the first half of 2005.
?The majority of home-buying activity is taking place in move-up home buying and in Sudbury we?ll talk about a price range between $120,000 and $200,000,? he says.
?Generally people who are secure in their jobs are looking to buy their second or third or fourth homes.?
Philp said this often skews the average price meaning houses will fetch more money than they?re worth.
He said the low-end of the Sudbury market has been weak of late simply because first-time homebuyers aren?t active or present, something needed for balance and stability in the merketplace.
?It sort of gets back to the migration issue that we face in Northern Ontario,? said Philp.
?When there is a scarcity in listings and still a reasonable demand, that usually points to an increase in price so part of the price increase phenomenon is undoubtedly due to a lack of supply.?
