08/06/2026
July's market stats are out, and the headline is a boring one in the best way — we're one point away from a balanced market.
686 homes sold across the LSTAR region last month, with 3,367 active listings and 4.9 months of inventory. The sales-to-new-listings ratio came in at 44.5%, up from 41.6% in June. CREA calls 45–65% a balanced market, so we're right at the doorstep and moving toward it, not away.
What that means in plain terms: if you're buying, you have choice and time for the first time in years, and with the Bank of Canada holding at 2.25% since October the payment math has stopped moving underneath you. If you're selling, it's slower — but properly positioned homes are still moving. The listings that sit are almost always the ones priced on spring instead of today.
Not every home moved the same way. Apartments were the only type up (+1.8% on the month). Two-storey homes eased 0.5%, single family 1.1%, townhouses 1.0%, and one-storey bungalows gave back the most at 2.2%. If you own a bungalow and you're still pricing off a spring number, that gap is worth a conversation.
A note on the area table: in Strathroy-Caradoc the benchmark is $726,700 but the average sale price in July was $548,041. Benchmark is what a typical home in the area is worth; average is simply whatever happened to sell that month. When the two sit far apart, that's the sales mix talking, not values falling.
One more number worth sitting with. Altus Group puts the average Ontario transaction at about $124,200 in spin-off spending — lawyers, movers, appraisers, appliances, the reno that follows. Against July's 686 sales, that's more than $85 million moving through local trades and businesses. Housing isn't just housing around here.
Every area in the report is telling a slightly different story, and the only number that really matters is the one on your street. Want a ballpark on yours? Send me a message.
With thanks, Dan
Daniel Kiekens, Realtor® · (519) 902-9211 · [email protected] · dkre.ca
