It was an unseasonably warm November for southern Ontario, and though the weather was hardly ideal for basking by the lake or hanging around the cottage in your shorts, it did help boost property sales to record levels for the month in the Muskoka area.
“Buyers want to see what they are buying,” says Tom Wilkinson, president of the Muskoka Haliburton Orillia — Lakelands Association of Realtors, in an email.
“The warmer weather meant it was easier to walk around to see properties and more important, (buyers) could see both the land and the waterfront,” he explains. “It is most difficult to sell waterfront property when it is covered in ice and snow.
So as the temperature rose to record-breaking heights in the region, an all-time November high of 150 non-waterfront property sales were put through the Muskoka Haliburton Orillia — Lakelands Association of Realtors’ MLS system, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
These sales added up to a 6.4 per cent increase over activity observed the same month a year ago, and were worth a total of $36.9 million, another November milestone achievement.
Meanwhile, 88 waterfront units were sold — also a November record — which marks a 25.7 per cent increase from November 2014. The total value of these sales was $65.7 million. That’s a record for the month, too.
The month’s waterfront and non-waterfront sales, which included homes and cottages, signal bigger trends. From January to November last year, 1,811 non-waterfront units were sold. That was the strongest level of activity for that period since 2003, said CREA. And the 1,525 waterfront sales registered during that same time amounted to the greatest number ever recorded over any 11-month period within a calendar year.
In November, the median price of these properties on the Muskoka area’s banks and shores hit $407,500, a 9.5 per cent boost over the same time last year.
Inland properties had a considerably cheaper median price of $235,000, but that’s still 4.4 per cent more expensive than in November 2014.
Throughout 2015, some 2,426 single-family homes were sold while 1,087 cottages changed hands, says Wilkinson. He thinks these key factors are pushing what he calls “recreational sales” in the Muskoka area higher: baby boomers taking flight from the city as they retire (a trend further supported by the fact that they can sell their homes in the GTA for record prices) and the current low mortgage rates.
Wilkinson suggests sizzling activity will continue. “With both waterfront and non-waterfront sales setting new November records, the strength of demand the market has enjoyed in 2015 looks set to continue into 2016,” he says in a statement.
*photo by Erick Nielsen Photography
