Last year saw record low sales, this was due to new taxes on foreign buyers and uncertainty around that with both buyers and sellers, with some sub-markets such as the luxury housing sector seeing drops in price between 25% and 30%, while the larger market saw declines in price between 10 and 30%. We entered 2019 with many markets seeing more than 20 months of supply, that is enough houses on the market relative to buyers that it would take 20 months to sell them all. Prices tend to fall in markets where supplies of more than 9 months worth of houses persist for 3 months or more, 2019 was thus an extreme case of this and saw significant declines.
We feel that the market has picked up significantly since then, going from a buyer's market in the summer of last year to a more balanced market now, back to 10-year averages. We believe this was as buyers who had waited to see what would happen to the market with the introduction of the new tax, decided it was time to buy. By mid-october every house that we sold went into multiple offers, a clear indication that we had started to enter into a seller's market. We expect spring and summer sales are likely to be back at their traditional levels. So, while the market has rebounded since the loss last year, we also believe that it may be more stable moving forward as more of the demand comes from local buyers.
For those looking to sell their place, be sure to make it market ready, we can help with this, this can mean correcting issues that exist before the buyer finds them, and getting quotes on issues that you don't want to fix right now to give to the buyer. We suggest doing a pre-listing home inspection performed on your home, this is a very affordable service that can save you thousands of dollars later in negotiations with buyers. The last thing you want is buyers finding something that you weren't aware of in a home inspection and then wanting to negotiate a lower price with you because of it, or losing a buyer entirely. Don't rush your property to the market, you should rather spend 500 on a fix than have to renegotiate for $10,000.
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