A round table discussion took a look at what's happening with the real estate sector in Windsor-Essex.
Experts talked about the dramatic changes in home value, availability and challenges facing first time buyers on Wednesday.
The average home price in Windsor-Essex has risen 25 per cent in one year and the total number of houses sold has risen compared to the same month last year since last July.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens moderated the event featuring Ontario Real Estate Association CEO Tim Hudak, Damon Winney with the Windsor Essex County Association of Realtor and Windsor Essex Home Builders Association President Vince Lapico.
Hudak says spending more time at home more often during the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unexpected effect on homeowners and buyers.
"People have said, you know, 'there are these certain things I don't like about my current place." They've done a lot of deep thinking about what there next place should look like," he says. "That trend has been to more spaces in the home and outside of the home like a yard or a garden."
He says working from home has made moving to a cheaper market like Windsor-Essex more appealing.
"Which allows more people to live in Windsor and report to a workplace in a bigger city or maybe accelerate plans for retirement," says Hudak.
Lapico says a rise in cost on new builds is being effected by demand and the cost of materials.
The cost of lumber has been on the rise, but he says imported products made from things like resin and plastic are hard to get right now.
"The majority of it is made overseas and when they reinstated getting all that stuff back online they've been supplying their own markets because their markets are on fire right now," he says. "We're having a very hard time getting simple things like drainpipe."
Windsor-Essex saw a bit more supply available last month with an 11 per cent increase in new listings compared to last year.
New builds grew from 360 in 2018 to 774 in 2019 - the region saw 796 new builds in 2020, according to building permit statistics.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi