What Do These Toronto Real Estate Numbers Mean, Anyway?

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.

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