City house prices up nearly 14 per cent from a year ago
An ongoing shortage of available houses is keeping Thunder Bay a sellers’ market and pushing buyers to offer well over the listed price.
As of Tuesday, the Thunder Bay Real Estate Board reported there were only 68 houses and condominiums available for purchase.
In sharp contrast, 20 years ago “it was not uncommon to have 600 listings on the market,” board chair Karen Hill told Newswatch.
Listings continued to tighten last month, falling again from last year and for a fourth consecutive month.
“We need more houses for sale. We need a lot more for first-time home buyers in areas such as Westfort and Current River,” Hill said. “Basically in the $200,000 to about $525,000 range, that’s where we need inventory the most.”
The median sale price for the 37 single detached homes that changed hands in the city last month was $410,000, up almost 14 per cent from January 2025.
These homes also spent less time on the market before selling than last year — just 18 days compared with 21 days.
Hill said these are particularly challenging times for younger buyers because of the competition for the houses that do become available.
“We’re seeing kids as young as in their early twenties that have saved up enough for a down payment and they want to get into the housing market. But often, they’ve written offers on 15 different houses and have even gone above the asking price, but still haven’t got a house.”
Bidding wars have enabled sellers to routinely get from $30,000 to $100,000 over the listed price
Hill said the city of Thunder Bay and the city manager are focused on growth, “which is wonderful, but we haven’t been building enough homes for years, and sometimes not even the right houses.”
She said she likens the current situation to the opening of a new store, where customers are coming in the door but finding nothing on the shelves.
Another contributor to the shortage, she said, is the reluctance of many seniors to downsize.
“I talk to a lot of our aging population that look at the options and don’t like those. We’re seeing people stay in their houses at 80 and 90 years of age because they don’t want to go into long-term care and the condos aren’t appealing to them.”
Hill said there are About 180 active real estate agents in Thunder Bay.
“Every one of them probably has at least 10 to 15 buyers. And when something pops up on the market they’re ready to show it. It’s not like the old days where I could make a map and my clients and I would set out to look at four or five in a row and then stop for coffee to talk about each one of them.”
She said despite the industry’s ongoing lobbying efforts with all levels of government for measures to generate more housing options, she’s not hopeful there will be any rapid improvement.
“We don’t anticipate it to change anytime soon, because we’re still severely low in inventory.” – tbnewswatch.com
article website here
OK, ask yourself just who benefits from sky-high house prices?
- Governments who benefit from increased tax dollars higher prices produce.
- Banks who make a big pile of cash providing long term mortgages loaning out money they create out of thin air.
- Real-estate agents whose commissions increase with prices.
- Existing home owners whose house values increase each year.
- Construction companies benefit by building larger more expensive home. No money in building small houses.
OK, ask yourself who benefits from low house prices?
- consumer
Look at this years property tax increase by the City of Thunder Bay. The $4% levy only tells part of the story. That is 4% on top of the 14% increase in house prices. MPAC assesses the values of properties in Thunder Bay every four years.
Think about it. How much will house prices increased over four years? How much will property taxes have increased over four years? See?
As you can see, the game is rigged. The term “affordable housing” does not mean lower priced housing. What it means is housing whose cost is subsidized by governments. The taxpayer.
House prices will NEVER go down. There is an ‘Industrial Complex’ that exists to keep those prices high.
Plus. Who creates inflation? Governments create inflation. Governments’ addiction with deficit spending pumps billions of additional dollars into the economy. This devalues the existing money supply. Those devalued dollars buy fewer goods. Inflation. (previous related posts here)
Money supply worth less forces governments to spend more money. More spending requires deficit budgets. Inflationary spiral.
Governments can’t do anything to lower inflation because they are causing it.