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Home buyers move east in Hamilton and are turning to condos
(Hamilton Spectator, Mark McNeil, Nov 30 2018)

Hamilton's housing market has been going through a major retrofit.

Parts of the city that have tended in the past to be sluggish for sales — such as the east end and central areas — have become hot. Whereas popular areas in the southwest and the Mountain are simmering down.

And there is movement away from detached houses, with sales of new condo-apartments going through the roof.

That was the message from Anthony Passarelli, senior market analyst for CMHC, at the annual Hamilton-Burlington Economic Outlook Thursday, a gathering for local realtors to learn about housing market trends.

Major price hikes over the past decade, partly fuelled by Toronto buyers, have pushed Hamilton house prices to a point that increasing numbers of families are bidding down their dreams into more affordable alternatives.

And they are looking to neighbourhoods such as St. Clair, and Blakely in the south-central part of the city and Homeside, McQuesten, Parkview in the east.

Conversely, Passarelli said, sales underperformed in Mountain neighbourhoods Mountview, Westcliffe and Buchanan. Underperforming with prices were neighbourhoods between the brow and Stone Church Road and Upper James and Upper Gage.

Sections of west Hamilton did well when it came to sales, but not so much on price. Passarelli said it was because of high inventory relative to the number of sales. Dundas and Waterdown were about average whereas Ancaster underperformed when it came to price.

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