Brantford real estate prices are up over 40% in just one year

Real estate prices across Ontario have skyrocketed over the past year, particularly in the GTA, but even further out, cities like Brantford can’t escape the surge.

After nearly every GTA city saw shocking price jumps, areas outside the city are now feeling the heat as would-be home buyers expand their search to find a home. And Brantford is the latest Ontario city to see a noticeable uptick in sales, according to a recent report from RE/MAX.

Located about an hour west of Toronto, Brantford’s housing demand has spiked, with sales up 11.6% year-over-year in June, setting a record high for the month. The number of sales was also 14.1% above the five-year average.

And with all these new sales, combined with a low level of homes on the market, competition has driven up prices quite a bit. The average price of a detached home in June was $632,800 — a 40.2% year-over-year increase. By July, the average price was up another 4.6% to $777,026.

“Based on the dearth of available listings at the end of each month since the beginning of the year, it seems like homebuyers are making short work of almost anything that makes its way onto the market,” said Ray Petro, president of the Brantford Regional Real Estate Association.

The report says that by the end of June, the number of listings in Brantford was down to 203, which is the lowest number of June listings seen in more than three decades.

According to the report, buying trends in Brantford aren’t expected to change anytime soon.

“With a convenient location so close to the epicentre of Toronto, homebuyers from Toronto may continue relocating outside of the GTA in search of affordable living opportunities and more green space,” the report reads. “This would position cities like Brantford comfortably in a moderately hot real estate market until at least next year.”