Is it safe to say that the Toronto real estate market is moving into uncharted waters these days? The go to response to the steady increase of prices has been the lack of listings, high demand and low borrowing costs. Are we seeing a flashback to early 2017? What has transpired are stories of multiple offers, wild bidding wars and many broken dreams. So, what should we expect as we move forward this year? We complained about not enough listings last year too, so we expect to see high demand pushing prices in an upward direction for the unforeseeable future.
It was sort of a flat week for real estate. It seems buyers and sellers are waiting for the market to “show its colours.” Agents are eager to start showing properties but our research indicates that listings in both the freehold and condo sector have backed off slightly from a year ago while demand has not waivered. The condo sector is off to a good start with 32% more units sold so far this year compared to the same time a year ago.
Happy New Year! A new year and new decade begins. Let’s sum up the real estate market for 2019. • GTA realtors reported 87,825 sales through TREB’s MLS system — up 12.6% compared to 78,015 for 2018 - the decade low. • New listings entered into the MLS system (153,000) were down 2.4% compared to 2018 • The average selling price for the GTA was up 4% to $819,319 and for the City of Toronto the average price was up 5.6% to $874,834 • The average sale price for a condo in Toronto was up 10.3% to $656,233 compared to $594,381 in 2018.
All quiet on the home front? Well listings are dwindling but buyers are still out there. We had a listing out of our office this week and there were 179 booked showings and yesterday it received 19 offers. Will this continue and what will it be like in 2020? Will the lack of housing supply in a big city market like Toronto drive prices up? We’ve already heard that interest rates will likely drop again next year and that the housing market has finally come out of its slumber since the stress test was imposed, making conditions for home buying overall favourable. CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing) forecasts population growth, rising incomes and strong employment will support a rebound in home sales and prices for the next two years, and by 2021 the average home in Toronto will cost $949,400!
The November stats were released from the Toronto Real Estate board this week and for the City of Toronto the average sale price was up an astounding 8% to $910,419 from November 2018. On a GTA-wide basis, sales were up year-overyear for all market areas with a reported 14.2% increase in sales. New listings throughout all neighbourhoods went in the opposite direction down 17.9%. November saw the strongest year over year price growth so far this year. “Increased competition between buyers has resulted in an acceleration in price growth. Expect the rate of price growth to increase further if we see no relief on the listings supply front,” said TREB chief market analyst Jason Mercer.
As the calendar flips for the last time this year and we are less than a month shy of Christmas, it feels like we are all gearing up for the holiday festivities. Agents are busy sending out cards and calendars to clients and preparing to take some well needed time off. The offices are slowing down, listings are dropping off, but buyers haven’t completely disappeared. Real estate economists’ view of the market’s performance in 2019 is that it was a solid year. The year played out in dramatic fashion. We had a sluggish start in the beginning of the year but by spring and into the summer months, fortunes reversed and the market overall has been on something of a hot streak. And to brighten the picture even further, the housing outlook for 2020 is resoundingly positive!
Last week's real estate market update could best be described by the simple phase "no news is good news". Across the downtown core, the east side and west side it appears that while listings are inching lower, there is plenty of appetite for buying a home, but the inventory is not there. We are witnessing the last hooray before the listing taps start to close over the winter holidays. Give it time though. In talking with our agents, we know that many buyers are waiting patiently for the spring market. In a couple of months pent up demand will return and buying a home will look like Black Friday at a big box store.