‘The average sale has definitely dropped, and that’s a very difficult pill for sellers to swallow,’ said a local real estate agent
When Janet Baic put her home on the market in January, she thought it would sell fast.
Her three-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 38 Algoma Ave. is listed at $249,000 — well below what many homes have sold for in recent years — and it features a newer roof, siding, furnace, kitchen upgrades and more.
“I expected it to move quick. That’s kind of what everyone was saying at the time,” she told SooToday.
“I expected it to be gone by now for sure.”
Three months later, the house is still on the market – with no indication it’s going to sell anytime soon.
Baic said she can count the number of showings she has had on one hand.
“It’s been really sparse,” she said. “There’s been a few that have been cancelled.
“I’m pretty stressed about it. It actually keeps me up some nights because I’m thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’”
Baic isn’t the only seller facing the same situation.
Through the first quarter of 2026, the local real estate market has been marked by slowing sales, lower prices, and buyers regaining negotiating power for the first time in years.
According to local data from the Canadian Real Estate Association, 81 homes were sold last month, a 34.1 per cent drop over last year. Through the first quarter of 2026, 220 homes were sold – plummeting 27.6 per cent over the first three months of 2025.
The median price of single detached homes sits at $302,500 after the first three months of 2026, a 9.6 per cent drop from a median of $334,606 over the same span last year.
For one local real estate agent, it’s a problem that doesn’t have a simple explanation.
From near-record snowfall covering the city this winter, to economic uncertainty surrounding Algoma Steel layoffs, there are a variety of factors cooling the local market according to Jean Morrison, a real estate agent with EXP Realty Brokerage.
While median sales prices have ballooned since the start of 2020, when they sat below $200,000, the downward trend in recent months has been discouraging for some sellers.
“I think there’s a really big disconnect in what the market used to be compared to what it is now,” Morrison said.
“The average sale has definitely dropped, and that’s a very difficult pill for sellers to swallow.
“That’s why you’re seeing things sit on the market for quite a bit longer.”
Although the 150 new listings in March were the lowest figures for the month in over two decades, the local months of inventory – the amount of time it would take all listed homes to sell at current rates – more than doubled from 2.2 to 4.5 year-over-year.
At the same time, the number of active residential listings hit 362 units at the end of March, climbing 36.1 per cent year-over-year for the highest active listing totals in more than five years.
Despite that, Morrison said there are still buyers on the market, but heightened costs of living are keeping some first-time homebuyers – among others – from taking advantage of lowered prices.
“The cost of living has escalated so much it’s difficult to come up with that down payment,” she said.
“Those first time home buyers are still there, and they’re always going to be there, but there’s definitely fewer of them in the market right now.”
Another issue some sellers have experienced is decreased interest due to their homes being occupied by tenants.
“Anybody that has a tenanted property and they’re attempting to sell it based on comparables to something that’s not tenanted, they’re going to have a more difficult time,” she said.
“Now, it’s a risk to the buyer. Will they move? Will they damage the house?”
Despite the downward trend, Morrison said some homes with adjusted prices have gone from receiving little interest to competing offers overnight.
“We find when things are priced really well, we’re still getting competing offers – so there’s still a desire,” she said.
As this winter’s heavy snow melts, Morrison hopes the local real estate market will warm up too.
“It doesn’t take a lot for things to start going in a positive direction,” she said. “I mean, the houses are still selling, right?”
All things considered, Morrison said the market is shifting towards a more balanced position, where buyers have more negotiating power than in recent years.
“This is something they have, that buyers haven’t had the opportunity to do for quite some time: negotiate,” she said.
“Before, the negotiating was, ‘How much am I going to pay over asking price?’ . . . which was very frustrating for people.”
