There is a lot of real estate pessimism about the London Ontario real estate market as a buyer’s market. Unfortunately, that pessimism is fed by the talking heads on TV or radio, the doom-sayers and the unwashed.

In the article below, The London Free Press and The National Post published an article stating that this is a buyer’s market.

There is no question that there are more homes for sale now than there were two years ago, and that some consumers are leery or unable to buy. I do not argue with that statement, as that is a fact!

Unfortunately, people love pessimism! Especially real estate pessimism!

Which headline would get more views?

•  Plane crashes. Or, 100,000 or more planes flew safely yesterday. I googled it.

• It is a buyer’s market. Or, 631 homes sold in London, close to 98% of the asking price!

• 5% unemployment rate. Or, 95% of Ontarians have jobs.

So, yes, buyers who have the DNA (desire, need, and ability) are not as plentiful. Some buyers are keen to buy, but one or two key aspects of the DNA are missing.

For buyers with the DNA, this is an excellent opportunity to buy, and for any seller with a high DNA, it’s a great time to sell.

I am a firm believer that action gets results; the nay-sayers, economists, and newspeople aren’t the ones who buy.

Houses and condos sell; they may take longer than in the past; however, the patient homeowner will prevail.

The Article

The only thing that has not been replaced at 695 Railton Avenue London Ontario, is the street number. This four-level backsplit has been tastefully and meticulously updated in the last five years and is for sale.

From a 55-year warranty metal roof (2020), windows (2022 and 2025), doors (2022 and 2025), flooring (2020 and 2025), bathrooms (2021 and 2025), kitchen (2020), AC (2021), furnace (2020), sump pump (2025), water heater (August 26,2025), the list goes on.

When someone says a house is move-in ready, picture this one.

A fully fenced backyard, a garden shed, and a hot tub are included. The water heater is owned. A driveway could hold three vehicles.

The 695 Railton Ave. London Ontario Neighbourhood

You can live here for years without worrying about any major surprises or unexpected expenses. Located in a great, safe family neighbourhood, with easy access to Veterans Memorial Parkway, the 401 and London Airport.

Check These Floor Plans For 695 Railton Avenue London

Area Schools, Amenities, Parks

695 Railton Upgrades

Kitchen:

• Quartz countertops and island

• Storage on both sides of the island

• Appliances

High Efficiency Furnace 2020 and Water Heater 2025

A/C 2021

Roof

• 55-year transferrable warranty,50 years left

• Eavestroughs and downspouts

Hardwood Flooring 2020

• Living room, stairs, hallway

Upper bathroom 2021

Windows and Doors 2022

• Main level

• Bedrooms

• Front door

Hardwood Flooring 2025 bedrooms

Basement bathroom April 2025

Basement floor April 2025

Sump Pump April 2025

New side Door June 2025

Sliding door May 2025

All basement windows, May 2025

Will a real estate spreadsheet help you decide on buying a home in London Ontario? In my many years as a Realtor, I hear “I’ll add it to my spreadsheet and get back to you.”

Or, “I’ll do a spreadsheet and see if the numbers work”.

Does a spreadsheet have:

• Rationality?

• Reasonability?

• Common sense?

• Optimism?

• Patience?

• Happy or being right?

• Uncertainty, doubt, regret?

• Analysis by paralysis?

Does a real estate spreadsheet rationalize a private backyard, a particular view, a unique layout or room sizes?

Your commute to work or work from home space? Schools? Walkability? Demographics?

When I worked with investors, most of them ran spreadsheets. The most successful investors used a spreadsheet with a twenty-year time frame and removed emotion from the equation.

Those wise investors also took into consideration changes predicted for the future, such as new construction, altered traffic flows, or government interference with their ability to achieve a decent return on their investment.

Morgan Housel wrote,” Financial decisions are not made in spreadsheets or textbooks.”

A real estate spreadsheet for a home buyer helps calculate utilities, taxes, and mortgage payments, but that is it.

A home may not be the wisest investment you will ever make, but a home is you, your family, your retreat, your safety zone, your comfort zone.

How can you put a price on that? Yes, prudence in theory may be bantered about, but home ownership is more powerful!

What a great time for home buyers in London, Ontario, and the surrounding area. With a 15.3% increase in new listings, active listings increased 26.5% in May!

I say this because prices rose in May by 1.4%, which is less than the inflation rate.

We have all read about people buying when everyone else is selling and selling when everyone else is buying. When the stock market plunged, smart money bought or averaged out their investments.

Some will say it takes nerves to do that, it is risky, what if prices go down, interest rates go up, it will be too warm tomorrow or it might rain, or, worst of all, not everybody is doing that so I will stick with the herd, but not try to look and behave with the sheep!

The May 2025 London Ontario & Surrounding Area Real Estate Market

The table below displays May’s average prices and MLS® HPI Benchmark Prices in LSTAR’s (London St. Thomas Association of Realtors) main regions.

The HPI benchmark price reflects the value of a “typical home” by buyers in a particular area based on various housing attributes. In contrast, the average sales price is calculated by adding all the sale prices for homes sold. Dividing that total by the number of homes sold. The HPI benchmark price is helpful in gauging trends over time, as averages may fluctuate due to changes in the mix of sales activity from one month to the next.

In May 2025, the MLS® Home Price Index Benchmark Price for the London and St. Thomas area showed varied trends. The composite benchmark price was $593,900. Reflecting a slight increase of 0.8% from the previous month. A decrease of 4.5% over three months and 2.2% over twelve months.

Single-family homes had a benchmark price of $651,500, representing a 1.6% increase from last month. A 13.6% decline over the past three years!

One-storey homes saw the most significant monthly increase at 3.5%, reaching $602,700. Two-storey homes had a modest 0.6% rise to $691,700.

If You Are Thinking of Buying, This is a Great Time

Townhouses and apartments experienced declines. The benchmark prices of $488,200 and $369,500, respectively, indicate a challenging market for these property types.

Over the past five years, one-storey homes have shown the highest growth rate at 55.9%, highlighting long-term appreciation in this segment.

The following table displays May’s benchmark prices for all housing types within LSTAR’s jurisdiction. Showing how they compare with those recorded in the previous month and three months ago.

The chart below shows the most recent HPI benchmark prices across Canada.

In summary, what to do? To Sherlock Holmes: “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance observes”!

What Prudent Home Buyers Do

Written by Ty Lacroix Broker

How do you get a better real estate market understanding of your local market?

First, a few common ways:

• Scroll through Realtor.ca or a real estate website to view the prices of available properties.

• Go to Open Houses

• What the economists say or predict.

• Your local newscast or newspaper

• The National Average, or what the GTA or Vancouver market is doing.

• Your parents

• Your children

• Your relatives, co-workers, pickle-ball friends, golf buddies, church members, neighbours.

• Your local bank representative, mortgage broker, Realtor, financial advisor, lawyer, doctor or nurse, your shrink, hairdresser, barber, plumber, electrician.

• The doom-sayers.

• Or, anyone who you think has their sh*t together.

What we do for our clients, and highly recommend that all buyers and sellers do.

A Market Education

 Visit the market and view 3-4 properties that are similar to what you are looking for, or to your current home.

Not to make an offer or buy on any of those 4, but to learn realistically about the market.  Then, when you are ready to buy or sell, you will know what to expect and be able to clarify your wants and needs more effectively.

When we offer market education.

• There is no obligation on your part, no signing anything, just an old-fashioned face-to-face meeting that, again, past clients said, helped them.

• Look at a few homes and keep your chequebook at home!!!!! 

• No signing anything

• No blah blah blah stuff, such as, “we’re #1, we sell gazillions of homes.

• No, I am not a miracle worker who can find your dream home for ½ the price

• No begging,” buy from me, I’m starving, my Mercedes payment is overdue, I’m honest, I’m a friend, a neighbour, a relative, yadda, yadda, yadda?

• No coffee, tea or lunch (you are not bringing your chequebook, I am not either!)

In summary, this involves a commitment of time and energy from both the Realtor and the buyer and seller.

Does this market education work? Below are what two of our clients wrote:

 “Ty, your market education system is wonderful!” Marilyn Cuthbert 

” Ty, you made our decision so much easier with your market education, thank you,” Philip Rosenburg

No, not all homes in London are overpriced! Yes, we are now in a buyer’s market, but that does not mean every seller will reduce their price.

There is no question that some sellers have overpriced their homes, but it is essential not to compare these overpriced homes with those that are priced well.

Here, then, is the crux of this market.

Most buyers and their Realtor are going in with low offers, regardless of the comparables and the value of an individual home.

The ‘throwing out the baby with the bath water’ mentality is distorting the market. I contend that mentality harms a buyer because they are missing out on fundamental value in favour of perceived value.

If I may, here is a classic example that not all homes are overpriced.

A townhouse condo is listed for sale at $650,000, and it is the only one available. Five months earlier, one sold for $565,000. Realtors and their clients will think that the $650,000 unit is overpriced. I dug further and here is what I discovered:

• The seller was underwater. (Meaning, they were in financial difficulty and had to sell quickly or lose the property to the mortgage holder)

• Nine photos, no video or floor plans.

• No staus certificate available, up to the buyer to order one.

• Initially listed for sale at $639,000, no offers. The listing was either cancelled, reduced, or expired three times before eventually selling.

• Everything in the unit was original from the builder, no upgrades.

• The listing Realtor was from the GTA area, and the only way for local Realtors or consumers to arrange a showing was by calling the brokerage’s switchboard, usually an answering service, then waiting hours for a call back, if ever, and by email, two to three days later!

• The unity was dusty and had a stale air odour as the place was vacant.

• The rugs were slightly soiled, and the walls required paint.

The $650,000 unit?

• Upgraded throughout with quality flooring, lighting, window covers, appliances and decorated.

• One more bathroom

• The backyard view was of a green space, not a six-foot wall.

Now, Are All Homes in London Overpriced?

What do you think happens when a Realtor and their client see the $650,000 place? They love it but think it is overpriced because a unit sold five months previously for $565,000.

Even though others that sold in 2024 in that enclave were in the $619,000 to $640,000 range!

In one instance, an offer was refused on the $650,000 unit because the offer was at $575,000, which was perceived as insulting not only the seller but also his Realtor. Refusing to counter-offer, a verbal offer was declined at $589,000.

Two weeks later, that buyer purchased a unit in another area of town for $595,000. The unit was older and of lesser quality than the $650,000 unit, and the condo fees were $285.00 higher.

Hmmmm! Who was the winner here?

Want more examples? I see houses and condos that are a great value sitting on the market waiting for the right buyer with foresight! Those sellers are not desperate or need to sell, so why play the game that you are going to lose as soon as you start?

Don’t get me wrong here, this is an excellent opportunity for buyers to take advantage of the softening real estate market. The homes that are priced right, their Realtor and the owners are realists and have price their property accordingly!

Are you finding your house too big? Do you no longer need all that space, or is the upkeep and cleaning becoming a chore? Or, now or sometime soon:

• The stairs are becoming a challenge?

• The landscaping and gardens are not fun or relaxing anymore.

• The expenses to upkeep and maintain are getting out of hand.

• All your long-time neighbours have moved, and you feel isolated.

• Has your neighbourhood changed? You don’t feel comfortable anymore?

• You want to cash in on your equity and travel or move closer to family?

What I have listed above, clients have related to me.

What holds them most back is that they currently feel comfortable in their home. The memories are strong, and they even feel that their home has a hold on them!

Unfortunately, time and circumstances change.

Noah did not start building the ark when it was raining!

I will not discuss all the social or financial options you have when you find your house too big. On Google alone, there are over one million articles to read! Then, you have the opinions of your children, relatives, accountant, money manager or financial advisor, church group, golfing buddies, and the unwashed.

As a Realtor, it’s a good idea to start thinking about a move within a six—to twelve-month timeframe at the latest. My most contented and happy clients are those who planned two to three years prior to the move!

For those of you who want to downsize soon, there are some best practices you may want to know to ensure that you are not leaving money on the table—or worse, that your choices were not the best move for you!

No grandstanding here, but I know your challenges, the emotions, and how hard it is to evolve your comfort zone. I have been there, and I have also helped hundreds of clients over the years buy and sell their homes.

I have learned more than a few things and still have lots to learn. One thing I know for sure is that a process of proven steps and practices works far better than winging it.

Thinking of a move, now or in the future? You are under no obligation when you contact me. No signing anything, just a brief conversation to see if we are both on the same page!

More About Downsizing

Unfortunately, 83.7% of home buyers and their Realtors believe they can only fulfill two sides of the London home buyer pyramid. I strongly disagree that a motivated, patient, and knowledgeable buyer working with a Realtor who has systems in place can fulfill all three; maybe not 100% in some cases, but I would take 90% plus over 66% any day!

As a home buyer in London, Ontario, and the area, I am sure you would, too!

Price

This may sound flippant, but price is what you are qualified for. If you are qualified to buy up to $800,000, why look at places that are $900,000 or more? You will either discourage yourself or discredit the seller’s ego if you can get $80,000 to $100,000 off the price.

Yes, I have seen a few cases where a seller with pie-in-the-sky fantasies has dropped the price by $100,000 or more after a few months of no showings or offers.

A reasonable buyer can easily fulfill the left side of the pyramid when there is a reasonable seller!

Location

Location may be #1 on the London home buyer pyramid. Regardless of price or features, you ain’t buying. You have your reasons and comfort zone, if you are going to move, feeling good about your environment is a good thing.

Features

What are your must-haves in a home? Would be nice? Don’t care? I have yet to find a home that checks 100% of the boxes. Think about your must-haves and if necessary, draw a line in the sand, no ifs, buts or what the heck -don’t cross the line.

Please tell me, if you took the time to understand the three sides of the London home buyer pyramid, why would it be difficult to find that home? If you find it challenging, one of the three sides is not aligned.

Have you ever wondered what a savvy home buyer is? Or is not? I may ruffle a few feathers here, warning those who like to pooh-pooh on everything.

You Don’t Know Everything!

Wise, savvy buyers know what they don’t know. They will then expend the energy to learn or get factual, qualified advice from those who do know. Notice I did not say get an opinion? You can ask 50 people for their opinion, read 50 articles, or view 50 social media feeds; cumulatively, you will most likely get 150 opinions!

Be Real—This Market Isn’t Hard

David Greenspan wrote, “It’s hard because too many people are operating with false expectations, and not enough honest conversations are happening to fix it. Buyers are chasing homes they can’t afford, and sellers are living in the past, stuck on 2021 prices.” 

Trying To Time The Market.

Timing the real estate market to sell or buy a house or a condo is a guessing game. If anybody tells you differently, run!

The market doesn’t care when we want to sell or buy, which is why so many quality and well-located homes end up on the market longer, or, heaven forbid, unsold! I learned a long time ago that there are things I can control and cannot, and the market is not in your or my control. You are the market.

Not Understanding The Process

Winging it is going to cost you. Buying and selling real estate is a process, not an event. Yes, it can be exciting, fearful, dreadful, hopeful, exhilarating, greedy, bountiful, forgiving, and scary simultaneously. Ok, I’m exaggerating. All within 24 hours! Or two weeks, or for a long time.

Be aware that Realtors have a process mandated for handling a purchase and sale, timelines, and a fiduciary duty to their clients. Your lender, lawyer, a home inspector, or a condo management company also has a process mandated for handling a purchase and sale.

Meet with all who may be involved BEFORE you start looking at properties. If you do that, I guarantee you will be a savvy home buyer with a huge advantage over other buyers.

We can all go through phases of temporary amnesia, try not to when buying a property!

Be Boring

Yes, speaking with the professionals takes time and is not as much fun as driving all over the place looking at properties. Boring is similar to the story of the turtle and the hare. The turtle’s pace is slow, boring, and plodding; however, the price is right.

Your time and effort will be rewarded exponentially, equivalent to the time it takes you to understand the process. Spend the time now and be rewarded later. Boring, I know, it’s your choice.

When you feel the timing is right to start the buying process, you’ll likely view several homes on the market that match your criteria. Below are the usual run-of-the-mill ideas.

Duh?

Bring a notepad. Take notes on the home’s characteristics and how you feel. Can you imagine yourself happily relaxing in this place or entertaining family and friends?

Bring a measuring tape. Do you know if the furniture you plan to bring fits? Exercise equipment or a couch? Will anything, such as windows, appliances, or flooring, need to be replaced soon?

Check out the area. Do other homeowners take good care of their properties? This shows pride in ownership. What is the noise level? Is there a playground or another area feature nearby?

Make a list of compromises. For example, is the kitchen doable or a deal breaker? Two bathrooms instead of three, and if so, can you live with that? Four bedrooms instead of three? Garage/ no garage?

Make a list of likes/dislikes. What features does the home have that are not necessary but would be nice to have? For example, a dining room, a fenced backyard, exposure to the sun or shade?

Remember your budget. Is the price within your range and allows some wiggle room for updates or repairs? The savvier you are when viewing properties on the market, the more likely you will be to find the right home for you.

Well, there you go, and oh, a little self-promotion.

Timing the real estate market to sell or buy a house or a condo in London, Ontario is a guessing game. If anybody tells you differently, run, don’t sign anything!

The market doesn’t care when we want to sell or buy, which is why so many quality and well-located homes end up on the market longer, or, heaven forbid, unsold!

I learned a long time ago there are things I can control and things I cannot, and the market is not in your or my control.

You are the market.

There may be five like you or a hundred, but they are not the market.

Since we can’t control what others think, feel, or do, we can control what we do. You control your mindset, the strategies you set, and the knowledge you have or think you have.

Circumstances happen.

• If you are a Snowbird and want to sell your place in Florida in 2025, you may face the situation of ten or more of your neighbours who also want to sell. You cannot control their motivation on price and risk, only yours. If you are committed to getting out, commit and pay the price.

• You decide to list your condo for sale at a price you feel is justified. A week later, another one gets listed for 15% higher or lower. What can you control?

• When interest rates were below 2%, you waited because you thought they would go lower. When they were 4.5%, too high, you waited, and on and on it goes. Merry-go-rounds are for children, not you.

• The greatest opportunity expense is time.

Yes, I am a Realtor and cannot control the market. Timing the real estate market is not in my realm of expertise. If I have an opinion, in reality, it is a guess. What I can control is my work ethic, values, learning, adapting and patience.

Who decides the real estate market?

The London home seller formula has four ingredients. Like baking a cake, if you leave out one or disregard it, you will not meet your expectations!

Excited that we sold your home is good, leave some energy to start packing!

In selling hundreds of homes in the London, Ontario area, these four core ingredients make up the London home seller formula. Yes, you can add a dash of this to match your taste, but you will still want these four to be the main content.

Location

The pricing should reflect the location.  Enough said.

Condition

The pricing should accurately reflect the condition, both inside and out. 

The Market

The market is made up of interest rates, mortgage availability, competition, and the public’s perception of the general economy. If you must sell, price and condition will help. If you are fishing for a price, you may not have enough compelling bait.

 Price

 Price is the #1 most important factor in selling a home. The consequences of making the wrong decision can be painful. If you price your home too low, you will give away thousands of dollars that could have been in your pocket. If you price it too high, your home will sit unsold for quite a while, developing the reputation of a problem property (everyone will think there is something wrong with ii)

• What you pay for your property does not affect its value.

• The amount of money you need to get from selling your property does not affect its value.

• What you think it should be worth does not affect value.

• What another real estate agent says your property is worth does not affect its value.

• What your uncle, your hairdresser, your parents, or your children say it is worth ( even though they have your best interests) does not affect its value.

• An appraisal does not always indicate what your property is worth on the open market.

The value of your property is determined by what a ready, willing, and able buyer will pay for it in the open market, which will be based on the value of other recent closed sales.

A Home Seller’s Guide With Hundreds of Tips, Ideas and Solutions To Sell Your Home or Condo & Start Packing!

I have hundreds of blog posts about these ingredients that describe each formula in more detail.