The real estate market will be filled with a lot of uncertainty and conflicting feelings in 2023. The elements that compete with one another to influence real estate market pricing and trends are high interest rates, a shortage of housing, and a rise in the number of immigrants to Canada, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area.
One of the largest new home development cities in Canada is located in Oakville. In recent years, North Oakville in particular has benefited from significant development initiatives in both the high rise and low density residential sectors.
The rise in interest rates in the second half of 2022 and in January 2023 has caused a general decline in both house sales volume and pricing. However, if we look at houses that are listed and sold
in Oakville, the first quarter of 2023 numbers are still higher than 2021 housing price in Oakville.
It was anticipated given these high mortgage rates, residential property prices would take a significant hit. Yet, this did not really happen. Today we can see that a 4 bedroom detached home with 2600 square feet of living area above ground can easily fetch 1.7 million, and they do sell within two weeks of going on the market.
Townhouses in North Oakville’s freshly constructed neighbourhoods are listed and sold for around 1.3 million. There is still a supply and demand problem, and the only way to reduce home prices to levels that are manageable is to increase supply. Continue to create new dwellings quickly.
Typically the commission paid to sell your home is split between your agent which is also called the listing agent and the co-operating agent or buyer agent.
In today’s market the buyer agent is paid a 2.5% of the final sale price and this is pretty much accepted and practiced throughout the GTA.
Now, when it comes to seller agent or listing agent, the commission rates vary between 1% and 2.5% which means your total cost of selling your home can be 5% on the high side and 3.5% if your own agent charged you a low commission of 1%.
The fees discussed above is for a traditional real estate service provided by your local area real estate agent providing you with full listing and selling services.
There are other DIY services or mere online or MLS listing services where the effort to sell your home is a shared one and agents do part of the work and you as the home seller are responsible for some of the work.
The details of who does what can be discussed with the company you are dealing with.