April 7, 2009.

Toronto Real Estate... It's Puzzling! 

I have been writing for several weeks now on how peculiar the Toronto Real Estate Market has become. (see Home Buyers/Bargains) Apparently, I am not the only one who has noticed. An article in today's Toronto Star echo's some of my observations.

Toronto Star article http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/614739

Market activity for March was up substantially from February with 6171 sales in March. This is only off 7% from last year. Also, listings are down 2% (although it seems to be more than that).

What does this mean... house prices remained relatively stable, down less than 5% from the same month last year.

BUT, is it a trend? That my friends is the $64,000 question. From the trenches (that's where I live) it would appear that it just may be.

For the first 3 months after the October meltdown, the RE market chilled significantly... ok, it was downright frigid. December sales were, well moderate, to be kind. January started slow and then picked up considerable momentum in the final two weeks. Then, February saw a significant bounce, and now we have some very positive numbers in March.

Add to this the fact that fixed term mortgages dropped this week (5 year rates under 4%) and we have the makings for a robust April market.

Hi-Lights from my previous articles...

Office sales from February up 10% over last year

Office sales from March up 12% over last year

We are still seeing some multiple offers on homes

Listings are down

First-time buyers are driving the market

Vast majority of sales $400,000 and under

Toronto Land Transfer Tax continues to chill "buy-up" market (explains why listings are down)