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We are entering an important time of year for the Southern Georgian Bay real estate market.

There is a seasonality to our market that is easy to overlook. As we move through October, we have roughly 45 days of meaningful market activity left before things begin to slow down for the winter.

So, for sellers, timing is important.

Once we get into November and December, buyers traditionally become less active. The holidays arrive, weather becomes a factor and many buyers who haven’t found what they are looking for decide to pause their search. Typically, we don’t see the market begin to pick up again until late February or March.

For sellers, this is the last real window of the year.

There are still buyers looking. Some have been searching for months, while others are waiting for the right property and price.

But sellers also need to be realistic about the current market. Year-to-date, there have already been 999 expired listings across Southern Georgian Bay, up 65% from 604 during the same period last year.

Not every expired listing represents a failed sale, but the number does tell us something: buyers have choices and they are not willing to pay yesterday’s prices simply because a seller wants them.

For sellers who genuinely want to move, the next 45 days may be the best opportunity to get a deal done before the winter slowdown.

For buyers, this may be one of the better negotiating windows of the year.

If you find a property you like that has been on the market for some time, the seller has a decision to make. Do they accept a reasonable offer now, or take the property off the market and potentially wait until late February or March to try again?

That can create meaningful negotiating leverage.

There is also another factor buyers should keep in mind: interest rates.

The Bank of Canada is currently holding its overnight rate at 2.25%. While there is no certainty about where rates go from here, the latest market forecasts suggest the path is less clear than it was earlier this year, with some expectations pointing to the possibility of rates moving higher next year.

For buyers, the takeaway isn’t that rates are necessarily going up. It’s that waiting until spring doesn’t necessarily mean things will be more affordable from a financing perspective. If the right property comes along and the numbers work today, it is worth weighing that opportunity against the potential benefits of waiting.

In other words, there are reasons to wait, but there are also risks to waiting.

The market isn’t going to shut down completely over the winter. Properties will continue to sell. But activity will slow, and that creates a very different negotiating environment.

For sellers, the next 45 days may represent the best remaining opportunity this year to find a buyer. For buyers, it may be one of the better windows to negotiate with a seller who is deciding whether to sell now or wait until spring.

Sometimes the best opportunity isn’t waiting for the spring market. It’s finding the right property and negotiating the right deal before everyone else comes back.