As of Thursday, Realtor.ca listed 26 residential properties for sale in Elliot Lake. According to the site, the five most recent listings range in price from $149,000 to $279,000.
Not all sellers choose to list on Realtor.ca but those figures give some indication of the tightness in the current local resale housing market.
At Oak Realty, Sales Representative Daria Olah says it's been a slow pull this year but supply is gradually increasing to meet demand.
She added, "We are finally starting to see more properties on the market and less competing offers. Therefore prices are starting to stabilize.
"Because of COVID we barely had any inventory so it was common to see multiple offers and properties sell quite a bit over asking price (which is something we did not see often). I do not foresee prices going back down to where they were a year and a half ago. I anticipate and hope that they will stay where they are now," Olah continued.
"Elliot Lake is advertised as a beautiful and affordable place to live so I'm hoping prices don't go up much more."
She advised sellers and buyers to be mindful of a few parameters in the process.
"For sellers, they want to make sure they have a place to go to before they list as properties are selling quicker than usual," she said.
"For buyers, if they need financing then they need to get pre-approved ahead of time. Since mortgage rates are so low a lot of people are re-mortgaging their homes and doing renovations so banks are pretty backed up right now (sometimes taking two weeks just to get an appointment).
"Buyers need to be aware that if they find something suitable right now then they may be in a competing offer situation," Olah went on.
She added a final note about availability of suitable local housing.
"There is not much inventory right now in terms of buying or renting. There is a high demand for both at this moment."
"If someone were to purchase an investment property they shouldn't have a hard time finding a tenant," she concluded.
Next Monday night at 6:30 p.m. the City of Elliot Lake will host an online public meeting via ZOOM to look at changes suggested in a consultant's report that would set down new rules for people to follow if they want to divide existing residential property into multi-residential housing.
Members of City Council will hear opinions expressed at the online virtual meeting as they consider suggested changes in the City Zoning Bylaws.
Contact City Clerk Natalie Bray at 705-848-2287 (ext. 2103) or email: [email protected] with requests to be included in the virtual meeting.