The August numbers
The Cornerstone Association of REALTORS® August 2026 numbers describe a market where sellers can't afford to guess.
481 homes sold — down 10.9% from last year. The average price was $722,683 (down 1.0%), while the MLS® Home Price Index for Kitchener-Waterloo sat at $628,300 (down 6.0%). 885 new listings arrived, pushing supply to 3.5 months, and the average home took 36 days to sell — 12.5% longer than a year ago.
Why October sharpens the picture
October is when that picture sharpens. The serious buyers are still looking; the casual ones wait for spring. Homes that launch with a defensible price — built from recent comparable sales, not optimism — still sell. Homes that don't get reduced publicly, and the market notices.
Settle the fee before the sign goes up
The other number worth settling before the sign goes up is your fee. On an $800,000 sale, a 3% listing-side fee is $24,000 versus $8,000 at 1% — $18,080 with HST on the difference. Buyer-agent compensation is separate and unchanged, so it cancels out of the comparison.
$24,000
Listing-side commission before HST.
$8,000
Listing-side commission before HST.
$18,080
Estimated difference after 13% HST. Buyer-agent compensation is unchanged.
This is an illustration, not a claim that every brokerage charges 3%. Enter your own expected price and fee assumptions for a property-specific comparison.
Calculate commission savings on my home →Your next step
Two things decide your outcome this fall: the price and the fee. The free comparison tools on fourcities.ca run both on your numbers in seconds, so you sign the listing agreement with the math in front of you.
Sources
Cornerstone Association of REALTORS® August 2026 release.