Toronto Real Estate Sales Stats Are OFF The Charts: Can They Be Maintained?

There’s always that ‘glass half-full’ or ‘glass half-empty’ mentality to consider… but I’ve always leaned towards the ‘half-full’ side.

Summary Of Sales And Listings - April 2009

Accordingly, here’s my take on the April Toronto Real Estate Board stats… They’re AMAZING considering the economic climate we’re supposed to be in!

There were 8,107 sales during the month and 23,515 listings on the market giving us a ratio of sales-to-listings of 35.5%… definitely in ‘seller market’ territory. Although sales are down 7.5% from 12 months ago, the listing inventory is down, yes down, 4.1% thereby contributing to the seller’s market rate.

Just as a reminder… a neutral Toronto real estate market is 24-28%, below 24% is a buyer’s market and above 28% is a seller’s market.

Toronto condominium sales were down in April compared to last year and comprised only 28.4% of the market. This is indicative of the better affordability of houses now compared to a year ago.

Lest you believe some of the newspaper reports on the demise of the downtown condo market, read on. In TREB District C01 the sales-to-listings ratio was 39.7%, in C08 it was 57.9%, in C14 (uptown) it was 51.2% and in C07 it was 60.7%. All were in serious seller-market territory.

Although the CEOs of Century 21 Canada and Royal Lepage are predicting the spring rally won’t last, many indications out of the USA are now starting to either turn positive or be ‘less negative’ indicating a bottom is approaching.

If true, then there’s no reason why Toronto’s market won’t stay strong thru the rest of the year.

CNN recently quoted a statistic indicating that the unemployment rate for people with university degrees in the USA was just 4.5%… almost full employment. If it’s the same percentage in Toronto, then buyer confidence levels for mid- to upper-range homes will remain high.

The C-21 CEO compared ‘twin cities’ of Toronto and Chicago and indicated that while Toronto has had just a 5.4% decline in average sale price year-over-year, the same statistic in Chicago is 34%… we’re just NOT facing the same stresses that our southern neighbours are!

The average sale price across Toronto for April was $385,641, down just 3.3% from a year ago. Contrast that with January when the average was lower by 8.2%. We’re actually above the April 2007 average and that was a record year!

I just listed a home at 69 Corley in the Upper Beaches neighbourhood on Friday and by Saturday night we had several offers on the semi and it ended up selling over list price with multiple offers.

Multiple offers are happening (unfortunately for buyers and happily for sellers) in all areas of the city and in almost all price ranges. We even had one with one of our Pickering buyers last week.

Frankly there doesn’t seem to be any external force that’s not already there that would slow the market back down to December-January levels. All the economic signs for the rest of 2009 from south of the border and elsewhere are just too positive!

Is it time for you to ‘stick a toe’ into the Toronto real estate market? One of the easiest is to go on one of our Saturday Tours of homes. You’ll see homes in the neighbourhoods and price ranges of your choice. It’s perfect to just see what may be out there for you and to initiate the buying process at a slow pace.

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