Home sales increasing after a lull in K-W's market, says economist

Eight months after the Ontario Fair Housing Plan was implemented, housing prices and sales in the Kitchener-Waterloo area are beginning to pick-up again after a brief slump,said Gregory Klump, thechief economist of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Klump said the plan, which was aimed at cooling the market, changed the "housing market sentiment," causing a"chill" in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area by "sidelining" people who wanted to buy homes.

"They waited for the market to correct itself so they made lower offers and if sellers are under no financial distress, they're not going to take it," said Klump. "So what you have is astalematebetween buyers and sellers that now seem to be breaking."

Fear of missing out has passed

Klump said on a year-to-year basis, housing sales are still increasing, despite the government plan.

"In terms of months, they've just recently bottomed-out and are starting to pick back up again," he said.

Klump said for young families,the fear of being excluded out from the market is now being "replaced with confidence."

"There's no indicator that prices will take off like before anymore so that makes for a more balanced market and buyers can take more time to make a decision before putting an offer on a place," he said.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors saidhousing prices in the areaincreased at an "unprecedented" 40 per cent back in April.