Every month, a stack of market stats lands in my inbox. Sales counts, average prices, days on market, months of inventory. Useful numbers if you already know how to read them. Mostly meaningless if you don't.
So instead of just handing you the spreadsheet, here's what July actually meant if you're the one buying or selling a home in Niagara right now.
If you're buying.
You have more room than you did a couple of years ago. Months of inventory sat at 5 in July, the same as June, which is generally considered a balanced market, not one tilted hard toward sellers. The clearest sign of that: sales over $1 million are down almost 29% year over year. The upper end of the market has cooled the most, which means if you're shopping in that range especially, you have real leverage to negotiate on price, closing terms, or conditions.
That doesn't mean lowball offers on everything you see. Well-priced homes are still moving in six weeks and still closing near asking. But you're no longer walking into a bidding war on every listing, and that changes how you should approach an offer.
If you're selling.
New listings dropped almost 7% from June to July, which works in your favour if your home is priced and presented correctly, there's a little less competing inventory pulling buyer attention away from you. But the flip side of a calmer market is that overpricing gets punished faster than it did in 2021 or 2022. Buyers have more to compare you against, and they're taking their time.
The homes still selling at 97% of asking in six weeks aren't lucky. They're priced to where the market actually is today, not where it was two years ago.
The bigger picture.
Zoom out and Niagara's average sale price has come down from its 2023 peak of roughly $791,000 to around $651,000 year-to-date in 2026. That's not a crash, it's a correction back toward a more sustainable pace after a genuinely unusual few years. If you bought at the peak, your equity story looks different than it did in 2023. If you're buying now, you're stepping into a market that's behaving more normally than it has in years.
Want the monthly version in 60 seconds?
I'm starting a new series called Stats in 60 Seconds, a quick monthly video breaking down exactly what's happening in the Niagara market, translated into what it means for you instead of a wall of numbers. First episode covers July. Follow along, and if you want to talk specifics about your street or your price point, send me a message any time.
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