Windsor-area housing prices are skyrocketing, with the local market near the top nationally in year-over-year price appreciation, according to a new survey.

Locally, the standard two-storey, single-family house sold for 20.4 per cent more in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest Royal LePage House Price Survey. Only Langley, east of Vancouver, saw a higher median home appreciation — 23.2 per cent — for such homes in the more than 60 Canadian real estate markets surveyed.

According to Royal LePage, the Greater Toronto Area marketplace experienced marketplace “softness” and home price declines over the previous year. By contrast, cities that surround the GTA, as well as elsewhere in southern Ontario, are seeing housing prices outpace the national trend as buyers exit the Toronto area for more affordable regions.

The median Windsor home price rose from $203,885 in the second quarter of 2017 to $245,418 in the same quarter this year. Another reason for escalating real estate prices is the lack of listings, according to the Royal LePage house price survey and market forecast released Tuesday.

Windsor also appears to be outpacing the national trend when it comes to year-over-year median price hikes for condos, which were up 19.1 per cent, from $163,513 to $194,765, and detached bungalows, which rose 6.9 per cent, from $227,145 to $242,854.

The aggregate total for overall residential sales, according to Royal LePage, shows Windsor’s second-quarter median price increased by 16 per cent, exceeded across Canada only by Langley (21.2 per cent) and another Vancouver suburb, Surrey (16.4 per cent). The median is the midway point between the lowest and highest prices, not the average.

Locally, it’s not that market demand has increased, it’s that new for-sale listings haven’t kept pace, said Frank Binder, broker and owner of Royal LePage Binder Real Estate. It’s a seller’s market, he said, but potential local home sellers are shy about listing their properties because the market is so tight.

“Before I can sell my house, I better make sure I find that new house — I’m not going to sell until I find a new property,” he said.

It makes for a hotter local market for those properties that do become available, particularly at the entry level, which Binder describes as anything under $290,000 in the Windsor area. “There are a lot of buyers chasing that same place,” he said.

Toronto area buyers are showing interest in Windsor properties as income-earning rental investments, but he said there are many other factors contributing to the escalating local prices.

“We tend to forget the people out west,” said Binder. The local economy is humming, and many of those who fled to the oil patch following the last recession are returning home to fill jobs. Binder said students who left their hometown for college or university are also among those who see the Windsor area as a good place to return to and begin homeownership.

When it comes to prices, however, Windsor’s real estate market still has a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the country. Outside super-heated Vancouver and Toronto, the average Canadian home last month sold for about $440,000, while the same residence in Windsor would be in the $280,000 range, said Binder.

New home construction in the Windsor census metropolitan area, which includes Tecumseh and LaSalle, is helping to increase the inventory, but “it’s not enough to take the edge off” current demand outstripping supply, he said.

There are big question marks on the horizon, however, including the potential negative economic fallout locally connected to escalating trade war talk between Canada and the United States.

Curtosey of the Windsor Star