Hi, I’m Thomas Cook from Toronto’s Real Estate Team at RE/MAX Hallmark and here is our July 2011 Toronto real estate market report.

July’s average sale price was up compared to one year ago but the listing inventory was lower.

We’re going to talk about the effect of a drop in the ratio of sales-so-listings (or as they say in Miami – the percent chance of selling) on the marketplace as we go thru this month’s report.

The press always seems to talk about “affordability” as if buyers are in danger of getting themselves in over their heads in terms of mortgage debt.   We’re going to discuss that and show you two interesting graphs in this month’s market analysis.

Grab a coffee and watch this month’s video analysis of the Toronto house and condo market.

July 2011 Toronto Real Estate Market Video Analysis Now Ready is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

The Toronto Real Estate Board has released its June 2011 Market Report, reporting that 10,230 homes were sold in the Greater Toronto Area during the month, which is an increase of 21% over June 2010 – the third best June on record, after 2007 and 2009.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says sales jumped 21% in June.

“The strong June result capped off an interesting first half of 2011,” said the Toronto Real Estate Board’s president, Richard Silver. “The pace of sales was a bit sluggish at the beginning of the year, but rebounded in May and June. Because of the positive affordability picture, home buyers remained confident in their ability to purchase and pay for a home over the long term.”

Listings dropped this year, which the Toronto Real Estate Board says is lessening the amount of potential Toronto real estate purchases.

“While sales have been strong, we would be on track for a record number of transactions in 2011 if not for the decline in listings so far this year,” said Jason Mercer, the Toronto Real Estate Board’s senior manager of market analysis. “Tight supply meant more competition between home buyers and an accelerating annual rate of price growth in the second quarter. Home owners will likely react to the strong price growth by listing their homes in greater numbers. A better supplied market would result in more moderate price increases,” he said.

The Toronto Real Estate Board says that 4,899 detached homes in the city were sold in June 2011, with a median price of $502,000. The next highest-selling property type was condominium apartments with 2,480 sold at a median price of $308,450.

For the full Toronto Real Estate Board report, click here.

Toronto Real Estate Sales Up In June is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Many questions have been raised about the status of the downtown Toronto condo market and how sustainable it is.

In this multi-part series entitled “Status Of Downtown Toronto’s Condo Market“, you’ll get the facts about what’s happening now and what’s expected to happen in the next few years. 

There are some surprises along with positives and negatives to the market so be sure to watch all parts of the series.

Part 1 of the Status Of The Toronto Condo Market Video

Comprehensive Analysis Of The Downtown Toronto Condo Market Is A ‘Must Watch’ is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Toronto real estate market predictions are often based on what the mortgage lending rates are.  With the latest Bank Of Canada news, and a recent drop in 5-year fixed rate mortgages, it seems that we’re in for a busy rest of 2011.

The TD Economics Report now predicts that the Bank Of Canada rate will probably not move until at least the beginning of 2012 and won’t move much even then.  This means that low mortgage rates will continue to help houses and condos be more affordable going into the next 6-12 months.

The Toronto Real Estate Market Video Report for May goes into some detail on what happened during the month and how that will impact our market going forward.

TD Economics Predicts Rate Will Remain Stable Into 2012 is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

The Toronto real estate house and condominium market this spring is looking a lot like last year with near record sales, low house and condo inventories and imminent interest rate increases predicted for this summer and beyond.

Last year, sellers finally realized by early May that they could get a good price for their homes and decided to list them all at once.  Inventory jumped almost 15% in one month and the average sale price peaked for the year.  After the dust settled, thru a busy June, the Bank of Canada raised their rates and the market slowed down.

This year in the GTA, listings of houses and condos are lower than they’ve been since before 2000 and so far there’s no indication that move-up sellers are going to jump into the market.

To get the full market scoop, click on our March Toronto Real Estate Market Report video below.

We’ve included the entire RE/MAX Ontario First Buyer’s Report for you to download and read compliments of Toronto’s Real Estate Team… please enjoy!

Will The Spring Real Estate Market In Toronto Peak In April Or May? is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

Toronto Real Estate – Market Firms Up in November

Well, the fall market is now over and we’re into the traditional Christmas-New Years slow period.

Although the last half of the year has been slower than the first, 2010 overall has been excellent.  By the end of December we should be very close to the record MLS sales attained during the 2009 calendar year.

I think most professional real estate agents are actually glad it’s slowed down somewhat in the July to December period this year.

When the market is crazy like it was in the first 5-6 months, it’s very frustrating for our buyer clients.  They fall in love with a home, put an offer in but don’t get it.  Then they have to repeat that scenario perhaps four or five times before they get lucky and win the ‘home’ lottery.

Everyone’s hoping that 2011 keeps an even keel with moderate sales price appreciation and very little multiple offer foolishness going on.

Watch November’s Toronto Real Estate Market Report and learn what happened and what to expect going into 2011!

Toronto’s Real Estate Market Firms Up In November is a post from: Toronto Real Estate | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

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 | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

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 | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

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 | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale

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 | Toronto MLS Listings | Toronto Homes For Sale