Mild weather credited for heating up housing activity
The total value of homes sales in Ontario’s Sarnia-Lambton area increased by 23% year-on-year in February.
The Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate Board (SLREB) said that 127 homes were sold in the area last month for a total value of $43.8 million, up 23% from the same period last year. Donna Mathewson, president of SLREB, told Sarnia & Lambton County This Week that unseasonably mild weather may be fueling what has become a busy real estate market.
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“Some of it is weather related,” she said. “It really hasn’t been a winter, so people aren’t burrowing down.”
Meanwhile, the area’s average home price in February was $355,803 – a figure that Matthewson said was “creeping up.” Mathewson also expects activity to increase following the decision of the Bank of Canada to lower interest rates.
“It’s fantastic right now for people who are buying,” Mathewson said. “We really thought, two or three years ago, we were going to see interest rates start to climb slowly. Instead, buyers are currently seeing rates of 2.6% or 2.8% per cent on a five-year mortgage.”
