Hamilton among most underbid housing markets in Ontario: report

A new report found that Hamilton’s housing market is the second-most underbid market in the province, behind only the GTA as a whole.

The Wahi analysis of the December markets found underbidding, when a buyer offers less than the asking price, in the GTA had “reached an unprecedented level” by the year’s end. Throughout the GTA, from Hamilton to Oshawa and up to Lake Simcoe, 98 per cent of housing markets were underbidding territory, the study found.

“This is the seventh consecutive month that the share of underbidding neighbourhoods has increased. It is also the highest share of underbidding neighbourhoods recorded since Wahi began tracking bidding activity in July of 2022,” the real estate tracker found.

Every month Wahi compares neighbourhoods by median listing prices and sold prices to see if the neighbourhood is in overbidding or underbidding territory. It then ranks all the neighbourhoods based on the median over or under bid amounts.

While 122 of the 400 neighbourhoods have too few sales to gauge, 120 of them were in underbidding territory prior. None of the 400 were in over-bidding territory, down from 16 in November.

“The Bank of Canada’s rate hikes last year are clearly having an impact on real estate markets across southern Ontario,” says Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen, “That said, with interest rates recently stabilizing or in some cases even falling, now could be a great time to potentially purchase a home due to having a greater selection of properties for sale and potentially being able to cut a sharper deal than even just a few months ago.”

The five most underbid neighbourhoods are;

1. Old Oakville at -$449,000
2. Eastlake, Oakville at -$250,000
3. The Annex, Toronto at -$145,000
4. East Woodbridge, Vaughan
5. Deer Park, Toronto at -$123,500

“The GTA-wide median underbid amount was $24,900 in December. With the highest home prices in the province, it’s no surprise that the region had the highest underbid amount of the major Ontario housing markets Wahi tracks,” they wrote. “However, when comparing the median underbid amount as a percentage of the median sold price, several cities saw comparable underbidding.”

1. GTA – $911,800
2. Hamilton – $645,000
3. London – $582,500
4. Waterloo – $675,000
5. Barrie – $672,500
6. St. Catharines – $520,000
7. Kingston – $550,000