The Toronto Real Estate Board’s sales statistics were released for the first half of July 2013 yesterday, showing a moderate increase of 2.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2012. The number of new listings that came to market on the TorontoMLS was two per cent less than the previous year.
As a Top Producer in the real estate trenches every day, these stats are not surprising. With alot of Buyers clutching mortgage pre-approvals with interest rates that are lower than the rates you can secure today, there’s a heightened anxiety in play right now. With an extremely limited supply of good product in the Old City Of Toronto’s ’42 village neighbourhoods’ where urbaneer specializes, competition is fierce. Most of these Buyers have until September or October to close on a property to take advantage of their lender’s current rate commitment. This is making it a Sellers Market.
As Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher says “The second half of 2013 began with tighter market conditions in the GTA housing market. With sales up and new listings down, it makes sense that the annual rate of price growth accelerated. This was especially the case for single-detached and semi-detached homes in the City of Toronto, which remained in very short supply.”
TREB’s stats reveal the average selling price for the first 14 days of July was $510,819 – up by 8.1 per cent compared to $472,632 in the first half of July 2012. The strongest year-over-year increases were experienced in the single-detached and semi-detached market segments in the City of Toronto with growth rates of 10.7 and 14.1 per cent respectively. The condominium apartment segment continued to experience moderate average price growth.
From our point of view, the market remains strong for anything which isn’t a crackerjack box in the sky. Despite last week’s Rainmaggedon (when Toronto received a record-breaking rainfall of 126 millimeters in just under 2 hours) that left a lot of properties in darkness and with flooded basements, or worse (I was showing a restored luxury Cabaggetown manse listed in the $1.4mil range when the monsoon-like deluge of rainwater was so intense it seeped over the thresholds of three sets of closed French doors – one on each of the three levels – causing tens of thousands of dollars in water damage within minutes), Buyers still went into competition on water-logged houses. Right now we’re seeing anywhere from two to ten offers on well-priced freehold listings and, while condominiums aren’t as likely to go into a bidding war, there’s still movement.
As they say “Snooze, you lose.”
So will the market change?
This is the question on everyone’s minds.
Click HERE for the TREB News Release for more detailed stats.
~ Steven and the urbaneer team
Real Estate
Tales From The Real Estate Trenches
