Seems like there’s a lot of confusion out there about the Toronto Real Estate Market. The problem is, when the media speaks of markets they tend to speak of averages, and the market as a whole when in fact we have many sub markets within Toronto that react differently to market changes. Here’s what really happening out there.

Own a house? Good! You still hold some power as a Seller. The more move-in ready the better.  Houses, especially in trendy neighbourhoods like Leslieville, Riverside, Riverdale (east of DVP) or West end neighbourhoods like High Park, Roncesvalles, South Parkdale. Houses, both Semi-Detached and Detached are preforming quite well. We’ve especially fallen in love with Birchcliffe Village, East of Toronto’s popular Beach neighbourhood. Homes here are not only affordable (for now anyway) but a mere 11K from King and Bay with easy access to transit. If you own a house and need to sell, do it now.  For those of you that like numbers here are some hard statistics from the Toronto Real Estate Board:

Sales of Detached houses are down 7% from this time last year but prices are up 5%. Sales of Semi-Detached Houses are down a mere 4% but prices are up 7%. For the first time in a long time, semi-detached houses have out performed their detached counterparts. 

Own a Condo? Sorry to have to break it to you but seems like the average condo, and by average we mean the cookie cutter 8-9′ ceiling with basic finishes in highly dense condo communities like Cityplace or Liberty Vilage aren’t performing all that well right now. Condos are sitting on the market longer than they have in years but there is a bright spot in all of the doom and gloom in the condo market. If you need to move and can afford to keep your condo, the rental market is super strong and finding a tenant shouldn’t be a problem. 

Own a Loft? Well, the term “loft” is used quite often to describe any condo that has 9’+ ceiling and concrete walls. Let us clarify this for you. There are many types of Lofts. Soft Lofts: Basically a new building with some exposed concrete and high’ish ceilings. These Soft Lofts are reacting just the same as Condos in today’s market. They’re down. We have Hard Lofts: These dwellings are usually in converted, old buildings. Hard Lofts are performing much better than Condos and Soft lofts as long as they have some sort of unique offering. Buyers swoon over exposed Douglas Fir beams, or walls of exposed brick. These types of true hard lofts are helping keep the Condo numbers up. Got a Hard Loft? You may experience a more balanced market but if your place is truly unique, you still hold some power as a Seller. 

Sales of Condos are down a whopping 14% since this time last year and once again, condo’s continue to trend downward as prices also dipped by 2%. What we’re seeing on the ground is a much larger drop in price for your average condo to nearly 10%. We feel as though the 2% figure is propped up by the better performing Lofts which are unfortunately lumped in with the Condo figures.

As we approach the Holiday season. Our favourite time of year! We should see Buyers and Sellers take focus off of Real Estate and begin to get excited about the Holiday events. There will likely be a dip in activity over December but things should pick up again in the New Year. If anything major changes, we’ll definitely report it. We’d love your feedback, what are you seeing out there? Post below or send us a message. To stay connected, give us a like on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Questions? Just ask.

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