Discussing U.S. Tariffs and the January Real Estate Market
This week, our Team Lead, Jason Ballas, shared his thoughts on recent developments in the United States and how they affect Canada, as well as the Quinte West real estate market this past month. Take a read!
Canadian / U.S. News
Let’s talk briefly on the news as it relates to Real Estate. Unless you have been living under a rock you have likely heard the announcements that the U.S President Donald Trump intends on placing a 25% TARIFF on goods imported to the U.S.A from Canada. The goal is to pay down the Countries deficit and encourage manufacturing and purchasing within the U.S. In response to the U.S tariff threat Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would be affecting a RECIPROCAL Tariff for goods imported from the States. The theory is that if Tariffs from another country would increase the cost to IMPORT those goods into our Country and, in-turn, could promote purchasing from within our own country. The fear of course is that if Canada has to spend more for goods, then Canadian residents will pay more for products and have less expendable income. If Canadians needed to source OTHER Countries to import goods from without tariffs, then this could represent job loss and unemployment for many Canadians. On Monday February 3rd, 2025, President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau had a follow up meeting and the main topic of conversation was increased Border Security. Trudeau discussed his billion-dollar plan to improve illegal immigration and drug trafficking across the joint border. As a result, Tariff talks were delayed for 30 days with no Tariff implementation at this time.
January Real Estate in Quinte West
On a local note, the January Real Estate Statistics are in. From the chart below you will see real estate information for the first month of 2025! These statistics include: number of sales for the main areas we cover, sold/year (same as the month), average sale price, median sale price and a very important stat “Months of Inventory”. You may recall from previous newsletters that Months of Inventory (also known as the absorption rate) indicates if the market is balanced (3 to 4 months of inventory), if it is a Buyer’s market (more than 4 months of inventory) or a Sellers market (less than 3 months of inventory). See the graph below for your respective areas.
From my observations with the market and supported from the graph above, I am seeing a fairly balanced market with a slight tendency for the Buyer, meaning we are still seeing a bit of a Buyer’s market. This is usually indicative of areas having a surplus of previous listing inventory from the fall/winter and slower sales for this time period. This is typical for the beginning part of the year and, in my opinion, will level out a bit approaching Spring, when you see more homes transacting. The latest rate announcement on January 29th, 2025 showed the 6th rate drop in a row for the Bank of Canada. This time, the drop was 0.25 % and this lowered Prime to 5.2% from 5.45%. This is good news for those people ON or CONSIDERING a variable rate mortgages. We, at TEAM BALLAS are starting to see our Seller clients contact us for market evaluations and for listing their homes……already. Pricing a home properly is PARAMOUNT and those that do are seeing action on their homes, even now during these winter months. Things are certainly looking good for a strong real estate market in the upcoming months. As always, contact TEAM BALLAS for more information or to have a chat about the market, the current value of your home or to talk about purchasing a new one.
