Kingston home sold via online auction sells for $111,110 over asking price
A Kingston home that was sold by online auction on Friday, Mar. 26, 2021 sold for $111,110 over its initial asking price.
The home, a semi-detached townhouse located at 585 Davis Drive, was listed by local realtor Jessica Hellard and the auction was administered with the assistance of Toronto-based On The Block Auctions Inc.
The property was initially listed for sale with an asking price of $349,900, and after 55 bids over the course of a few hours, the selling price ended at $461,010. Registered bidders could bid in increments of $1,000, up to a maximum purchase price they had pre-set.
The auction was extended several times over the course of the evening as bids continued to come in over the last half hour of the auction.
The auction, which was the first online auction of its kind in Kingston, shows that the increase in house prices in the Kingston area appears to be continuing unabated. According to the Kingston and Area Real Estate Association, the average price for a home in the Limestone City rose by just under 39 per cent from February 2020 to the same month in 2021. According to Mat Clancy, KAREA’s President, at the beginning of 2020, average price levels were slightly above $400k, rising to nearly $600,000 just a year later.
Hellard said she believes the increased sale price of homes is simply an alignment of Kingston’s market with that of other cities. “I’ve always thought Kingston was low-priced for what I thought Kingston homes were worth. Because I think Kingston is the best city, and we have so much to offer, we’re so close to everywhere, Toronto and Ottawa…that I was surprised that our average price was so much less…than some (other) areas.”
Hellard also points to COVID-19 as the impetus for many people to make decisions in re-prioritizing certain things in their life, leading to an influx of people to Kingston. “I think people have finally had a reason to venture outside of Toronto and Ottawa, see what their goals are in life, make some of those decisions. COVID did so much to change peoples’ perspective…(It) made people realize that they had a too-small home, or maybe they don’t need as big of a home…maybe they don’t need to be in the big city, maybe they want to live in the country. It made home so much more important.”
The situation as described in this article is not sustainable.
The only people who are benefiting are the real estate agents the homebuyers from outside the area and the sellers ;if they are not planning to purchase a new home.
Those not benefiting are the families of Kingston residents whose children may wish to live in “ the best city with so much to offer.” They do not have buckets of cash from the sale of homes in the GTA which would allow them to purchase new homes.
The situation in the housing industry confirms what investors have know for years.Housing provides a return on their investment with low risk. The risk we are now seeing is that housing prices have risen to such an extent that owning a home has become only a dream for too many. Wages have not kept up the rise in home pricing .
Houses have become cash cows.Outside buyers are buying low reselling high as a good investment strategy. Ben Benson Finance Minister in the 60’s maybe had it right. Although politically not acceptable then and likely not now, capital gains on home sales might lead to a rationalization of what has become an irrational housing market.
A gains tax on home sales might just lead to a rapid correction in the housing market.