As expected, there was a sharp pandemic-related drop in Sarnia-Lambton's real estate sales last month compared to April 2019.
Board President Donna Mathewson said residential sales were down 41 per cent, and residential listings were 48 per cent lower.
She said agents have been very creative in how they market a home during the pandemic, doing virtually everything online until a final walkthrough.
"We make sure that we have hand sanitizer and we have wipes," said Mathewson. "We've also asked sellers to turn on all the lights, open all the doors to all the rooms and the closets so that when a realtor takes a buyer into a home, the only touchpoint should be the front doorknob and a railing possibly, if they were going downstairs or upstairs. If the realtor is carrying a wipe, we're able to backtrack and basically cover our tracks on the way out of the house."
Mathewson said so far, home values are remaining steady.
"We saw a slight increase of four per cent, over what April 2019 did last year. We still are in that same supply and demand situation, so, I don't think that we're going to see home prices really drop. I think that there's a lot of people waiting. They put things on the back burner, as far as listing or purchasing. I don't think they necessarily cancelled those plans to make a move."
She has some advice for future home sellers.
"Take this opportunity to get all those extra things done," Mathewson said. "Buyers, because there is a high demand and because of how times have changed, they are really looking for homes that are good and cleaned and ready to sell. So, take this opportunity to do some of those things that you needed to get done. Reach out to your realtor and ask them if they can give you some ideas on things that you could do to your home to make it more sale-able."
Across Sarnia-Lambton the average sale price so far this year is $358,667 with 87 properties worth over $32 million selling in April.
In March, the industry was mandated by the government to reduce the number of purchases and sales to only those that are considered to be essential.