The price of homes in Barrie is still up from last year but the market is slowly returning to normal from the crazy days of March.
The average selling price of a detached home in August was $515,922 compared to $543,356 in July.
"We're down from July but we're still up about 14 percent from August of last year. So I think things are starting to stabilize. And frankly in terms of what's been going on, we're seeing a lot more balance come back to the market, which is a good thing both for buyers and sellers," said Rob Alexander, President of the Barrie and District Association of Realtors.
Back in March the average price-tag of a Barrie home was $604,000, so prices are sliding back to normal instead of with a crash.
From August last year to this August, the number of sales is down about 55 percent.
"Inventory is a lot greater over the last two or three months even corresponding to the same time last year. The total sales that we had in August this year was approximately 300 versus in July 331. But if you compare it to August of last year there was 594 residential resales."
March 2017 was a record month with over 700 sales recorded.
"Thinking back to March we had that huge month which was a record month. We were over 700 sales. That was a record for the Barrie area. Then what's happened over the last three, four months, the uncertainty got into the market. I think as more inventory hit a lot of buyers got on the sidelines which again and I feel right now being a more balanced market is better for everybody," said Alexander.
"We're not seeing nearly as many multiple offer situations. In fact, they've become much more or a rarity. We're seeing homes with the normal conditions - finance, inspection, insurance. It's much more normal which it always used to be."
And there have been a number of listings where people are getting offers accepted that are conditional on the sale of their home, a move that also went out the window during the spring frenzy.
The fallout of that is still being felt by some buyers who paid high.
"I've heard anecdotally of a number of situations where homes were not closing or they're trying to come up wth creative ways to make deals actually close whether it's by price reduction or extending the close," said Alexander.
"There has been some of that locally which is really a shame. The people who purchased really early in the year without a care in the world about what was going to happen to their home and then the bottom fell out. They either had to have a lot of price decreases or just weren't able to sell."
But Alexander says those situations in Barrie are nowhere near the numbers in Toronto.
Prices are still up over last year but have become more 'reasonable' in Alexander's opinion.
"It's a good news situation. A lot of balance in the market now. A lot of inventory. Buyers have a chance to go out and shop the market and prices seem to be stabilizing," he said.
"It's really hard to say what is going to happen this fall. The minor bumps that have happened - quarter point increases and another possibly coming up in October - it may well be that people who had pre-approvals locked in place will want to take action sooner than later. We may see a bit of a blip."
The Association has had a shift in MLS systems mid-month so the numbers this month may be slightly off but pretty close.
