Home prices increased $195K over the pandemic in Hamilton and Burlington

People who were fortunate enough to buy a home at the beginning of the pandemic, will have seen the value of their home increase in Hamilton and Burlington.

In an attempt to find out how much home values increased during the pandemic, real estate brokerage Zoocasa analyzed home prices in major cities across Canada.

Zoocasa looked at home prices from August 2020, 2021 and 2022 and compared them to the national price of a home in 2023 as well as major cities across the country in an effort to see how much they’ve changed.

At the start of the pandemic in April 2020, sales, understandably, slowed. But the market soon recovered with steadily increasing prices.

“Historically low interest rates cushioned the blow of tight inventory during the pandemic,” Zoocasa notes. “As a result, activity increased and demand for homes was high, which led to homes selling seemingly overnight, keeping prices high.”

But as the Bank of Canada started to increase the key interest rates, now at five per cent, home prices dipped slightly.

Prices have fluctuated, although, on a national level, they were up again in August 2023, Zoocasa notes.

So, if you bought a home in Hamilton or Burlington in 2020, how much is it worth today?

A home priced at $668,200 in the Hamilton/Burlington area in 2020, increased to $840,900 in 2021, $857,900 in 2022, and $863,700 in 2023.

This means those who bought in 2020, could find there home is worth $195,500 more today, according to Zoocasa.

Hamilton and Burlington aren’t alone seeing price increases. The Greater Toronto Area saw a $280,700 increase over three years, and Kitchener-Waterloo is up $179,300.

Zoocasa also plotted the home price changes along with interest rates showing how the increases are impacting home prices. The graph shows a peak in prices in the spring of 2022 with a slow decline to the end of 2022.

For the full report, see the Zoocasa post here.