At the beginning of 2022, buying a home in Brantford felt almost impossible. People lined up for showings, offer nights were everywhere, and homes sold a hundred thousand dollars over asking. A lot of buyers didn't just lose a bidding war — they gave up.
I meet those people all the time. "We missed our chance." Maybe you lost two or three bidding wars. Maybe you stopped looking because prices felt ridiculous. Maybe you figured you'd never catch up.
So I wanted to answer one question: if you walked away in 2022, what does your money actually buy today? A couple of the answers genuinely surprised me.
Remember what 2022 was actually like?
You'd book a showing and twenty other people had already been through the house. Everything had an offer date. Financing conditions disappeared. Inspections disappeared. Sometimes you lost by fifty thousand dollars, sometimes by a hundred. People weren't really buying houses — they were competing for them. And I think that's when a lot of buyers checked out. Not because they didn't want a home. Because they got tired of feeling like they never had a chance.
What happened to prices
Here in Brantford, the middle sale price peaked at just over $800,000 in early 2022. Last month it was about $607,000.
What that really means: prices have gone back to roughly where they were in early 2021. About five years of price growth has been erased.
And when I looked specifically at detached homes inside Brantford, something surprised me. This summer the typical detached home is selling for about $650,000. Two summers ago it was about $620,000. Last summer, about $650,000. Three summers — almost the same number. Prices stopped running away. That's the important part.
Where buyers have the most power
I expected the answer to be starter homes. It wasn't. The biggest opportunity right now is at the upper end.
Between $800,000 and $1 million there are 77 homes for sale — about five months of inventory at today's pace. Above $1 million? 56 homes, and about twelve months of inventory. Those sellers are waiting.
Meanwhile, starter homes around $550,000 still sell in roughly three weeks. Which creates an interesting situation: if you already own a starter home, you may be in one of the strongest positions you've been in for years. Your home still has buyers. The bigger home you want has a lot more competition. You sell in a stronger market and buy in a softer one.
The negotiation number
There are almost 600 homes for sale in Brantford right now — and 182 of them have already reduced their asking price. Almost one in every three listings. Those sellers have told the market their original number wasn't working. On top of that, the average home that sells today closes for roughly two percent below asking.
Compare that to 2022, when buyers fought to offer more. Today, many sellers are negotiating down. That's a completely different conversation.
The honest part
I don't want to oversell this. Home prices came back. Mortgage rates didn't. Monthly payments are still higher than they were in 2021. So don't decide based only on price — run the monthly payment, talk to a mortgage broker, and see what today's numbers actually look like for you. For some people the answer will still be "I'm going to wait," and that's okay.
But I also think there are a lot of buyers who gave up in 2022 and simply haven't looked again. The market changed. Their opinion of the market never did.
What I'd do if I were buying today
The very first thing I'd look at wouldn't be asking prices — I'd look at sold prices. That's where the real market lives. I'd spend most of my time on homes that have been sitting thirty days or more, focus on the price ranges with the most inventory, and build every offer around evidence — not around the seller's expectations. Because buyers finally have something they haven't had in a while: options.
See it for yourself
That's one of the reasons I built BrantfordHomes.com. With one free account you can see every sold price in the city, follow price reductions, save searches, and watch new listings come up automatically — the same information I use when I'm helping clients decide what a home is actually worth. No pressure, just better information.
I don't think this market belongs to buyers, and I don't think it belongs to sellers. It belongs to the people who understand it. If you walked away during the madness of 2022, it might be worth taking another look — not because prices are cheap, but because buying a home today feels completely different than it did back then. If you'd like to see what your budget buys in today's market, reach out anytime.