While we’ve certainly left traditional real estate market dynamics behind and moved into The Season Of COVID-19, the annual increase in activity typical of September and October held true this year – at least for the freehold housing segment. Ground-based housing – detached, semi-detached, and townhomes – continued to experience significant competition this autumn while the condomimium market floundered. Thanks to both the fear of COVID-19 in high-density buildings and the newly-imposed Toronto policies restricting Airbnb rentals, condomiums flooded both the sale and rental markets; this caused transaction activity to slow and many sellers and landlords to initiate reductions in asking prices to remain competitive. As of two weeks ago, realtors have noticed an even steeper decline in condo activity, with showings all but halting as the second wave of COVID-19 washes over us.
With new market dynamics oscillating weekly, real estate activity is becoming less predictable. Realtors must stay vigilent, exercise their intuition, and, most important of all, rely on their knowledge and experience of Toronto housing. Having 28 years of experience buying and selling in Toronto, we’re here to offer our guidance on the state of the market or anything real esate-related! Please do not hesitate to reach out!
Here’s the Toronto Real Estate Board’s analysis for September 2020, with graphics courtesy of Market Watch:
TORONTO, ONTARIO, November 4, 2020 – Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) were up again year-over-year for the fourth month in a row. Our Members made 10,563 sales as reported through the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s MLS® System in October 2020. This was up by 25.1 per cent compared to 8,445 transactions in October 2019.
Sales and new listings reached record levels for the month of October. However, year-over-year growth rates for sales and new listings diverged in some market segments. In the detached market segment, the pace of annual sales growth far outstripped growth in new listings. Conversely, the condominium apartment market segment experienced more than double the new listings compared to October 2019, whereas sales were only up by 2.2 per cent over the same period.
“Competition between buyers of single-family homes, and particularly detached houses, remained strong last month and continued to support double-digit annual rates of price growth in many GTA neighborhoods. In contrast, condo buyers have benefitted from much more choice compared to last year. Pre-COVID polling had already pointed to an increase in investor selling in 2020. The pandemic only added to this trend with a stall in economic growth and a halt to tourism impacting cashflows for many investors,” said Lisa Patel, TRREB’s President.
The MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark was up by 10.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis in October 2020. The average selling price for all home types combined was $968,318 – up by 13.7 per cent compared to $851,877 in October 2019.
“Year-to-date home sales through October were above last year’s level. The economic recovery in some sectors coupled with low borrowing costs has kept home purchases top-of-mind for many GTA residents. With this being said, we have not accounted for all of the pent-up demand that resulted from the spring downturn. Expect record or near-record home sales for the remainder of 2020,” said Jason Mercer, TRREB’s Chief Market Analyst.
Love a good infographic as much as we do? Here’s one from our broker – Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – based on the October 2020 TRREB stats for the City Of Toronto!
If you’d like to see more in-depth figures – by housing type and/or geographical area – here’s the complete set of October 2020 TRREB Stats.
At Urbaneer.com, we’re here to help – all without pressure or hassle. We simply love what we do! With a multi-disciplinary education in housing, sound knowledge of the mechanics of real estate and a sharp skill set in evaluating properties for over two decades, we’re here to guide you through all the factors which play into Toronto’s real estate market.
~ Steven
Steven Fudge, Sales Representative
& The Innovative Urbaneer Team
Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – (416) 322-8000
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