A Brome-Missisquoi residential real estate broker has dived into the statistics to highlight the evolution of the Brome-Missisquoi real estate market and what the numbers suggest for the future. 

Using data compiled from a platform that is accessible to all licensed real estate brokers called "Centris Statistics," Don Joyce from Royal LePage Au Sommet researched what the Brome-Missisquoi market looked like before the pandemic and how the dynamics of the market changed once the pandemic struck in 2020. 

Joyce analyzed certain factors, such as the number of houses on the market, the average time a house takes to sell, and housing prices in the region, between 2011 and 2022. 

Taking into consideration the importance for first-time homebuyers to understand the market, Joyce shares his research with Brome-Missisquoi citizens. 

“You would not believe how many people are really interested in what’s going on in our market. A large percentage of our population own their home or there is a large percentage of our population where it may be their single biggest investment. Everyone has a very keen interest and I am never at a loss for things to talk about,” said Joyce. “People always have questions about what’s happened and about what could happen in the future. I think it’s very timely because as we come out of the pandemic, things are starting to settle, shake out, and people are concerned.”

From 2011 to about the first quarter of 2020, Joyce noted that there was a “slow and gradual climb” in the Brome-Missisquoi real estate market. 

“Little bit by little bit the market crept up. If you look at it from a percentage wise, the average home when up by about 23 per cent over those ten years. It’s a good solid growth, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary and everyone was used of it. It was almost predictable,” he explained. 

According to Joyce’s research, once the pandemic began in 2020 the predictable patterns of the market began to change.

“There are some key indicators in there. The first one was the number of homes on the market in Brome-Missisquoi. If I look before the pandemic, we had on average about 600 homes for sale. By the end (of 2022) the pandemic, we were down to pretty much 200 homes available. The market of available homes shrank considerably,” he highlighted. “The other thing that changed was that in the past it would take almost 129 days on the market for a house to sell. Through the middle of the pandemic, that had dropped to 51 days.” 

Joyce added that in the past people would normally sell their homes for five percent under the listing price, but during the pandemic homes were selling for five per cent above listing price. 

“So it was a complete reversal of the market, from a buyers market previously to a sellers market during the pandemic,” he mentioned. 

Joyce said that the provincial government’s decision to increase interest rates to help curb inflation seems to have put a “calming effect” on the market. 

“We are starting to see the pendulum swing a little bit further back. The number of homes on the market are starting to creep up, as is the time to sell. It seems to be reverting back to the way it was before the pandemic where it was a more balanced market and not having people feeding the real estate market thinking they were losing their last chance for a home in Brome-Missisquoi,” he explained.

To hear more from Joyce about the Brome-Missisquoi real estate market listen to the full interview below: