While house prices in St. Catharines and Niagara Region houses are worth marginally more than they were exactly a year ago, home values in this area dropped 9.6 per cent from the second quarter (April to June) to the third quarter (July to September) of 2022.
According to a Royal LePage survey that looked at prices country-wide, the third quarter value of Niagara homes in 2021 was $648,200 as opposed to this year’s third quarter value of $672,100 – a four per cent increase.
However, that $672,100 value is a considerable drop from the $743,500 average values seen in Niagara during the second quarter of this year.
These numbers have the same pattern across the country as Canada-wise, home prices increased 3.3 per cent from the 2021 but decreased 4.9 per cent quarter-over-quarter in 2022.
Royal LePage is also forecasting a further drop of 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the same quarter last year.
“September did not bring the typical seasonal lift in the number of homes trading hands in this country, a clear indication that our housing market continues to adjust to higher borrowing costs,” said Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage.
“Home prices follow sales volume trends, which means we will see further softening in the final months of the year. Our revised outlook has national prices at just below where we ended 2021, erasing the gains made in the first quarter of 2022.”
Across the country only four markets posted a quarterly increase in home prices. Those were St. John’s, Newfoundland, Charlottetown, PEI, Montreal South Shore and Saskatoon.
