Cliff Barron here with my latest update for Milton, Georgetown and Glen Williams for the week of September 27 to October 3rd, 2020. 

Before I get to that, I'd like to talk about appraisals. I've sold quite a few houses lately - it's been crazy busy - which is good. That's good for a real estate agent for sure! Houses have gone through the roof  (no pun intended) in the past three or four months.  And with that, the question of "appraisal" comes in. 

I had some clients that sold their home and just before closing, the bank wanted to come and do their appraisal.  My client said, "Why do they have to do an appraisal? They're already pre approved!" or "They've already got the financing. It's already a firm deal. I don't understand!"  Well, there are a couple of reasons why they do that appraisal:

Though my view is different now, a few years ago, I used to think that it was an excuse for the bank to make an extra few bucks just before closing. Basically, they come in, they charge the client about $300 or $400 for the appraisal, which takes 15 minutes, so they can squeeze a little bit of money out of the client looking for a mortgage. 

To be honest though and to be fair towards the banks, the reason why they want the appraisal done now is because the home prices have gone up so much. They have to be completely 100% sure they know exactly what they're financing.  So in other words, if a house is listed for $950k and sells for $1.2 million, the bank might come in just before closing and do their appraisal and say, "You paid $1.2 million for this? That's crazy.  We estimate the value at $1.1 million." So basically, the bank is saying, "We're going to finance you up to $1.1 million - and you have to come up with the other hundred thousand."  Sometimes the buyer will get that notification 2 days before closing because the bank always wants to do their appraisal close to the closing date, since they know that the market fluctuates. I've seen it before - in 2017 - where the market shifted so quickly (downwards), banks weren't financing, they didn't appraise out. So you bought a house for $900k back then, through multiple offers in say, January, February and then when it came to closing in June, well by then the market had tanked. And the bank said, "No, no, we're not going to finance $900k, we think it's worth $800k."  So it was a bit of a messy situation for a lot of people and it could be soon, but we'll see.  Hopefully not, as I haven't heard anything yet, which is good.

So when it comes to the appraisal, if you're selling your house, just remember, even though it's a firm deal, days before the actual closing date the bank is going to want to do the appraisal.  The appraiser will be in and out in about 10 or 15 minutes - very quickly. They basically do everything that I do as an agent and compare your sale to the recent sales - that's how they value the property for the appropriate financing.  So anyways, that's a little bit of info about bank appraisal. I get questions about that so I thought I would help to kind of clear it up. 

So now to the sales for Milton, Georgetown and Glen Williams. Been busy - it's still busy. It's slowed a little bit, but not a lot - nothing to worry about. I can kind of sense it starting to shift a little bit, but not a huge shift.  I think it's more of a shift because of the time of year.  And as well, COVID is kicking in again a little bit and that's kind of spooking some people slightly.  I don't think it's anything to really be too concerned about in the short term, but who knows in the long term? It's a bit difficult to predict, you know?  

So Milton, the week of September 27 to October 3rd, 2019, there were 39 sales and in 2020 there was 50. So, a good number sold. And that was basically in line with last week - so things are pretty steady. The average detached was $1,000,064 last week, the average detached before was $1,000,198, which was, like I said, a record I've never seen. It was so high. So now we're kind of back in line. The numbers get skewed - sometimes you get some big properties that sell and throw everything out of whack, so that's what happens. There were 28 detached sold, 7 semis sold and 15 townhouses sold.  The average detached was $1,000,064, the average semi was $808k and the average townhouse was $770k and all three of them were 5-7 days on the market, so they sold pretty quick. Condo sales were basically the same this week as they were last week, $540k on average, 5 sales - pretty much the same, so condos are still healthy in Milton as opposed to Toronto where they're not healthy. Deadsville there - too much inventory. 

Then we move on to Georgetown. Busy week.  Not as busy as last week, but still in line. It's okay - everything is still doing well. This week there were 15 sales. 8 last year at this time. The average detached is $1,000,099, 12 of them - and 3 towns. There were no semis that sold. 3 towns sold for $736k, 3 days on the market. And the average detached, like I said, 12 sales, $1,000,099 average price, 11 days on the market. So things are still moving quickly, though it was a little bit more active last week. The detacheds sold a bit quicker. There were more sales last week, but still nothing to ring the alarm bells about, you know what I mean? So everything's okay. So hopefully that answers a few questions you may have had. 

Any further questions, shoot me a DM, PM, email, give me a call 416-909-6497. I'm always around and I'll talk soon and now I gotta say it again -BE SAFE!