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“It’s a very competitive scene for buyers right now in these two cities,” Graham said. “It’s challenging for buyers at this time because there isn’t a lot of choice and you’re often going to be put in a situation where other buyers are interested in the same property. You’re going to be engaging in bidding wars.”

Ottawa was third with an average price increase of 10 per cent to $450,295.

Newmarket, with a 30 per cent decrease, Aurora and Richmond Hill had the largest drops in average prices in the Zoocasa report, which compared April 2017 and 2019 to gauge the impact of the former Liberal government’s Fair Housing Plan.

In April 2017, the Toronto market was peaking, average house prices had gone up more than 30 per cent and there was concern about foreign investment and speculation, she explained. The Fair Housing Plan, which included a non-resident speculation tax for foreign buyers, seems to have created a more balanced market in the GTA.

The Zoocasa report looked at the sales-to-new-listings ratio which takes the number of sales and divides it by the number of new listings. A balanced market has a 40 to 60 per cent ratio and anything over 60 per cent is a seller’s market.

The highest sales-to-new-listings ratio in Ontario was in the Ottawa region at 73 per cent, followed by London at 72 per cent. London’s ratio had dropped from 84 per cent in April 2017 to 72 per cent this spring and London has a tighter market than Windsor, Graham said.

London experienced a drop in listings while Windsor-Essex had a 16 per cent increase in the supply of homes for sale in April, compared to two years ago. Windsor’s ratio dropped from 78 per cent to 67 per cent.

Will the hot markets and high house values continue here? “That’s kind of the golden question,” Graham said.

shill@postmedia.com

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