Average price for Hamilton homes still sliding

The once red-hot pandemic housing market in Hamilton has finally cooled.

New listings and average home prices in the city fell for the fourth consecutive month in August, part of a broader trend that's also seen properties take a lot longer to sell, according to data released by the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) on Friday.

The average Hamilton home sold for around $792,700 last month - down slightly from July but a far cry from February and March, when the average selling price was north of $1 million.

The continuing price slump came as new monthly listings were below 1,000 for the first time since January.

There were 963 fresh homes on the local market in August, down six per cent from July, 35 per cent from June and 40 per cent from May.

It's a clear trend that's also seen sales across Hamilton plummet.

All but one of the nine local neighbourhoods covered in the RAHB report experienced year-over-year sale declines in August.

Among the steepest drops include Hamilton West, where sales declined 45 per cent last month compared to August 2021; Ancaster, where sales fell 42 per cent; Stoney Creek, where sales shrunk 40 per cent; and Hamilton Centre, where sales slipped 39 per cent. Average year-over-year home prices in three of those areas - west, central and Stoney Creek - also plunged between $30,000 and $62,700.

Meanwhile, properties in Hamilton took longer to sell last month than they had in all of 2022.

The average local home lasted 28 days on the market in August - up 23 per cent from July and nearly double the rate experienced in May.

And it's a pattern that data shows will persist: the average time Hamilton homes have lasted on the market has increased for seven consecutive months. The peak for the year was in February and March, when properties sold in under nine days.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com