Ontario cottage country listings are at an all-time low

Buying a property in Ontario cottage country is harder than ever right now.

A new report from The Lakelands Association of Realtors found that inventory in the Lakelands region, which includes areas like Muskoka, Huntsville, Sauble Beach, Wasaga Beach, and the Bruce Penninsula, dragged to an all-time low in January.

“New supply coming onto the market just isn’t enough to keep up with current levels of demand, which has drawn overall inventories down to their lowest levels on record,” said Lakelands Association of Realtors President Chuck Murney.

Despite this “ever-intensifying supply shortage,” Murney says that sales of both waterfront and non-waterfront homes still managed to come in above typical January levels. Residential non-waterfront sales were 1.3% above the five-year average and 8.4% above the 10-year average for the month of January.

Waterfront property sales, of which there were 53 in January, were 16.2% above the five-year average and 20.7% above the 10-year average for the month of January.

As is the case with real estate all over Ontario, prices in cottage country are steadily on the rise.

“Given the historical tightness in our market, it’s no surprise that prices are posting 30% year-over-year gains and rising to unprecedented heights,” Murney said.

The benchmark price for a single-family home in the Lakelands region now sits at $692,500 — a 32.4% jump from January 2021.

The median price for a non-waterfront home broke a record in January when it hit $807,500 — up 30.2% from one year prior. Waterfront properties, on the other hand, had a median price of $1,150,000 — up 33.7% year-over-year.

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The total value of non-waterfront properties that changed hands in January broke a record for the month, with $262 million in sales recorded — up 13.3% from January 2021.