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London’s housing market appears to be staging something of a comeback in the latter part of 2024 with both home sales and prices rebounding in November, the latest housing market snapshot shows.
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A total of 614 homes were sold last month, the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors reported on Wednesday.
That represents a 35.5 per cent increase in market activity compared to November of 2023, the lowest year for home sales in the London area in more than two decades. So far this year, total home sales are up about eight per cent.
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At the same time, the average resale price of a home in the London market, which also includes St. Thomas, Strathroy and portions of Elgin and Middlesex County, went up to about $640,200 in November, or roughly $17,000 more than in October.
Chalk up the more positive figures, which follow a sluggish summer that saw the market technically enter into buyers’ territory for the first time in recent years, to the ripple effect caused by lower interest rates, said Bill Madder, LSTAR’s chief executive officer.
“I think there’s a combination of factors but that’s the main one,” he said.
“I think there’s certainly demand (for homes) but I think people were just waiting for the Bank of Canada to make it clear that they were going in that direction, and it gives people confidence that they can be sure that rates are going to continue to come down and will be (low) for some time.”
After rate cuts this year in June, July, September and October, the Bank of Canada is scheduled to make one more interest rate announcement this year next Wednesday, Dec. 11.
Canada’s central bank key lending rate, which impacts interest charged on credit products such as mortgages, car loans and lines of credit, now sits at 3.75 per cent.
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Though most economists anticipate a rate cut, they are divided on whether the bank will move ahead, as it did in October, with a half a percentage point cut or just 0.25.
The lower interest rates, combined with changes to amortization rules that will allow first-time home buyers to get 30-year mortgage loans, are expected to boost home sales even more in 2025.
A recent forecast by realty giant RE/MAX is projecting home sales to go up by about 10 per cent next year, with prices reaching an average of about $671,000. That’s in line with what most Canadian markets are projected to see in 2025, according to the report.
“I think the London-St. Thomas area is in a very good shape moving forward,” Madder said. “I don’t think 2025 is going to be a boom, but it’ll be a steady, solid year.”
London area average home prices by region – LSTAR
- Middlesex Centre: $843,289
- North London: $709,361
- Central Elgin: $704,179
- Strathroy-Caradoc: $663,786
- South London: $620,727
- Thomas: $556,623
- East London: $513,283
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