In the first two weeks of August, there was a 29 per cent difference from the same time last year as well for Toronto existing home sales.

Home sales across Toronto are down, but it was to be expected.

In July, existing home sales across Canada fell 30 per cent when compared to July 2009, with Ontario and British Columbia pulling down averages across the board and taking the blame almost entirely according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Home buyers seem to be sitting on the fence with slightly higher expectations because of the booming market and lower prices earlier in the year and all of the current uncertainty is leading to hesitation for sellers when putting their homes on the market.

Even the Bank of Montreal recently released a statement in response to the latest numbers saying that it seems anyone who was going to buy a home this year had simply done it already.

While the decline is a bit more than was expected, sales in 2009 were high above the expected trend, leading to a larger-looking decline than reality would suggest. The ups and downs are a normal sign of a healthy market.

Regardless, the ebb and flow of the real estate market doesn’t change how people move, be it for a new job, lifestyle changes or any other reason. Your Toronto real estate agent watches the markets carefully and can help you determine the best course of action with regards to pricing your home so it sells.

Current Toronto Real Estate Cooling Is Just Inevitable Due To Earlier Boom is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates

We are continuously striving to provide up-to-the-minute statistics on Toronto’s real estate market as we see them. Statistics are regularly released on either a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, so there’s lots of information for potential or current homeowners to pick through when researching the home buying or home selling process in Toronto.

Toronto real estate statistics can be confusing at times!

These statistics are released periodically by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Toronto Real Estate Board, various Canadian banks, Toronto condominium statistics companies like Urbanation, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Real Estate Association.

All of these numbers from so many different, authoritative sources can get confusing. Not to mention that media outlets are handed press releases for the majority of these Toronto real estate statistics containing ready-to-use quotes and basic information, which they pepper into their articles which they are free to put their own positive or gloomy headline on depending on how they spin the numbers. If an article has about two, solid and well-worded quotes, it’s most likely information just pulled from a press release. If the article reads like a conversation or contains various “so-and-so told our media outlet exclusively” bragging rights, there was some in-depth reporting involved.

Back to the numbers.

Monthly statistics are informative, but less important than the trends over several months in which we can see a clear decline or increase. If one month posts 3,000 new home sales and the next month records 2,800, the headlines may say that “New Home Sales are Declining!” and then lay blame somewhere. It does not take into account that the previous month had 4,200 new home sales, and the month before that had 2,700, just like the ebb and flow of anything that’s dependent on a number of external factors.

If monthly home prices go up, it’s better for investors as they’ll see a higher home value and an increase on the return on their investment. If home prices are down, first-time and prospective actual home buyers will be looking forward to taking advantage of lower prices.

When sorting through the jumble of statistics, take the numbers in context. If home sales are down now, it’s not all doom and gloom because the spring was a record-setting real estate boom in Toronto with the end of the recession and the pressure to snag a home before the new mortgage rules, rising interest rates and Harmonized Sales Tax were implemented. Look at the overall trends for several months at a time, and most reports will contain year-over-year comparisons to provide a better feel of how the market is doing.

What Do These Toronto Real Estate Numbers Mean, Anyway? is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates

Toronto Real Estate Board Stats - July 2010

So is it just a traditional summer market slowdown or is it the harbinger of a long-term decline in Toronto real estate sales?  Only time will tell (hindsight is always 100%).

Although the average Toronto house and condo sale price at $420,482 was up 6.3% over 12 months ago, it was down 3.5% from June and a significantly lower 6.2% from May 2010.  It IS typical that the summer month’s average does drop from the busy spring period of the year but the decline is not often as large as this.

House and condo sales across the Greater Toronto Area were down 31.2% from 2009 while listing inventory was up 21%.  To put some relevance to that figure, in case you thought we were ‘overwhelmed’ with listing inventory, we had fewer listings in the month than during July of 2008, 2006, 2005 and 2004 (4 of the last 6 years).

This listings decline represented either the sale of homes that had to sell or the removal from inventory of homes by sellers who were unwilling to lower their expectations and decided to remove their home from the market.

This is not the time for agressive sellers looking for the ‘best price ever’.  It does however offer an ‘opportunity’ for Toronto move-up families… they’ll get a lower price for their existing home BUT save on the purchase price of their new house or condo!

The ratio of sales-to-listings came in at 30.2%… just above neutral market territory (24-28%)… the lowest it’s been so far this year.  This reflects a more balanced market devoid of multiple offer ‘crap’ which distorts the numbers for everyone and adds a lot of stress to the home buying process.

Downtown Toronto condo listing inventory was up just over 50% in C01 (west of Yonge) and in C08 (east of Yonge).  The average sale price in C01 was up slightly over June (+0.7%) and down in C08 (-3.7%).

August sales for the first several days of the month show a decline from July but we did have the long weekend Civic holiday in there.  The listing inventory has so far remained steady for the month.

Take a few minutes, grab a coffee or tea, and watch our July 2010 edition of Toronto’s Real Estate Market Report.

July Toronto Real Estate Board Sales Lowest Since 2002 is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates

Downtown Toronto CityPlace Condo With Fabulous Birds-Eye View Of The Rogers Centre Field

This lovely 35th floor 1-bedroom plus den suite in the Optima building at CityPlace has a spectacular view of the field when the dome is open.

Take a look at the photos, suite and building video, floor plans and feature sheet for you or a friend.

Are You A Blue Jays Or Toronto Sports Fan? is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates

Condo Living Downtown Toronto

As mentioned in a previous post, Toronto’s condo market is showing record sales BUT it’s also showing a few other curious facts which are very interesting to downtown Toronto condo owners and buyers.

There’s a chart showing 2010 sales vs 2009 plus a commentary on how sales (and listings) have changed in the past two years and why.

Go and take a look.

Toronto Condominium Stats Reveal Some Interesting Trends is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates

Toronto real estate market activity for October 2009

There were a record 8,476 sales of houses and condominiums during the month – up a not-surprising 64% from 2008. Of course one year ago the world was imploding and every market was hitting bottom. Howver we are still up 561 sales over October of 2007 which was a record year.

The ratio of sales-to-listings for the month was 58.8% – on a par with June in the spring market. This is mainly due to the exceedingly small inventory of listings. There were approximately 15,000 listings during the month where this time of year we typically have 20,000 to 24,000 houses and condos available for sale.

The average sale price for homes across the GTA was $423,559, the highest it’s ever been. A big driver of this increasing average was the move-up buyer purchasing larger, more expensive homes. However the average sale price year-to-date is up only 3.6% over the same period in 2008.

Resale condominiums maintained their 31.6% share of the market, slightly higher than earlier in the year but less than during the third quarter of this year.

I have heard through the ‘appraiser grapevine’ that banks have been repossessing more homes in the last six months than they were previously. Still that number is nowhere near the foreclosures taking place south of the border.

Our Team has been fielding quite a few calls recently from past clients who are now looking to move up to a bigger house or to switch from a condo over to a semi- or detached home. If that trend continues across the board, more listings should be appearing over the next several months. We have a ‘chicken or the egg’ problem though… in this low-inventory market, people need to buy first before they sell. If they can’t find something, they don’t list their home thereby contributing to the lack of listings problem.

Advice to buyers today is certainly to buy first if you already own a home. Several of our clients have endured the manufactured multiple offer situation caused by listing agents pricing their homes artificially low (usually by $50,000 or more). This wastes an incredible amount of everyone’s time and is expensive for the buyer who needs to pay for a home inspection prior to putting in their offer.

Average Toronto Sale Price to October 2009

If this will be your first home, every buyer needs to make 100% sure their financing is in place prior to putting in an offer. This is always good advice BUT even more so today when a buyer needs to go in firm when they’re in competition with other buyers for the same condo or house. Get in writing what we call a Full Mortgage Pre-Approval where you supply your lender proof of income (employment letter, Notice of Assessment from Revenue Canada and a current pay stub), proof of down payment (GIC or term deposit, RRSP statements or print-out from your bank account) and get a credit bureau done.

Then your lender should give you a letter stating the maximum amount of mortgage you qualify for (you may not go that high but better to know what your parameters are), the interest rate they’re guaranteeing, the length of time the rate guarantee is good for and the phrase “NO Conditions” except for an appraisal.

By the way, buyers with low 5% or 10% down payments need to be cautious when entering into multiple offers that they don’t get carried away in the ‘heat of the action’ and end up overpaying. If the bank’s appraisal comes in lower than the purchase price, there’s going to be a big problem on closing day!

Another Record Month For The Toronto Real Estate Board is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates