Housing prices to stay flat in 2020

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This article was published 30/12/2019 (2265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Home prices in Winnipeg will remain largely unchanged in 2020, even as values appreciate in most other markets in Canada, Royal LePage predicts in a year-end forecast.

The aggregate price of a Winnipeg home — a measure that includes all categories of housing — will stay flat on an annual basis at $321,300, according to Royal LePage’s latest market survey forecast. Royal LePage expects the median price of a Winnipeg condo to grow by 1.25 per cent on an annual basis to $235,800 in 2020, while the median price of a two-storey detached home is expected to shrink by 0.25 per cent year over year to $352,600.

“I’m a bit more positive than the report suggests, but overall, I think that the big message is that Winnipeg is really well-positioned going into 2020,” said Winnipeg real estate broker Michael Froese, a managing partner with Royal LePage franchisee Royal LePage Prime Real Estate.

Unlike the hotter Greater Toronto Area market, where Royal LePage attributes expected home price growth in 2020 to a shortage of housing supply, Froese said Winnipeg has plenty of homes listed for sale.

“So there’s been more selection for buyers, there’s been more inventory, more construction, more builds, more opportunities,” he said. “And so that does put a downward pressure on pricing, because buyers have more to choose from.”

The expected flatness in Winnipeg home prices over the coming year is in contrast to Royal LePage’s predictions for home prices in Canada’s real estate market as a whole. On a national level, home prices should see “healthy appreciation by the end of 2020,” according to Royal LePage’s forecast, which sees the aggregate home price rising 3.2 per cent on an annual basis to $669,800 over the year to come.

Although that kind of expected price growth eclipses Winnipeg’s forecast, Froese focused on what he considers the positives in Winnipeg’s real estate outlook: demand remains high, he said, and the local economy is diverse with a growing workforce and high levels of consumer confidence and home affordability.

“Those things are going to drive sales — as well, immigration, population increases, those are all positive signs for numbers actually trending upward,” he said.

Froese warned against painting the entire Winnipeg real estate market with the same brush. He said certain neighbourhoods and market segments with lower housing supply do experience multiple offers and bidding wars that drive prices up.

He said Winnipeg condo prices are expected to increase in 2020.

“Where supply has outpaced sales in housing, condo sales have outpaced inventory, so that’s why we’re seeing a bit more positive increase there… It’s been a positive year for condos, and we expect more of the same,” Froese said.

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solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel