Week 145: Sellers hold strong as frustrated buyers still trying to find “the one”

We’ve seen a drop in freehold listing supply in Toronto’s urban communities by 36% in the past eight weeks, while sales have plunged nearly 78% since peak sales activity in Q1 of this year. Similar story for condos, just not as dramatic a drop.

In the coming weeks, you might hear a lot of noise about power-of-sale properties in Toronto. Some say it’s the tip of the iceberg, and cracks are starting to show.

So I dug into it. An agent claimed that there were over 30 power-of-sale properties listed in Toronto. So I looked it up. But there’s a catch; there’s no way to search for power-of-sale properties. You can “hack” the search by using popular bank names under the “seller” field or search the keywords “power of sale” in the comments section or mortgage remarks.

That search yielded 22 properties. Ten were power of attorney, meaning the seller could not sign their documents (usually due to age or mental illness). A few more were from a development called Power. So, there aren’t that many more bank-forced sales (that’s what power of sale is) than there usually are.

But even if there are bank sale properties. Why does that matter? The listing supply is meagre, so does it matter who the seller is?

What matters is that these owners are in default, but when you’re talking about a tiny handful in a sea of thousands of listings, it’s a non-issue. But I’ll keep monitoring.

Again, we’ll keep a close eye on this, but I don’t believe the existing supply of Power of Sale properties are a signal of anything.

Cracks are starting to show with borrowers that have taken risky, high-interest loans that are coming due. But that’s not your average homeowner and nowhere near the critical mass of defaulting borrowers required to tank a market in the way some are talking.

One thread on Twitter talked about six units in a building along Kingston Rd that were all being sold under a power of sale. One person owns all six units.

But if you did any digging into those units, you’d find a deep connection to the owner of a development company who had taken a risky private loan to fund these purchases.

But that thread failed to mention that one of these units was sold firm, another sold conditional, and the others are rented out, producing income and will be bought in time. And no steep discounts here. Those units were selling and sold at solid market value.

As usual, if you take the time to dig a little deeper, there’s more to the story.

That’s all for this week! Please take a look at the charts below and would love to hear your feedback on YouTube or anywhere else you see this report!

Urban Markets: Downtown & Surrounding Areas
House Average Price: $1,423,940
House Median Price: $1,200,000
401 Active Listings
29 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 1.60 (down from 1.78 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 30.35

Condo Average Price: $839,164
Condo Median Price: $695,000
1479 Active Listings
56 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.24 (down from 2.25 last month)
Average Days on Market (DOM) ~ 30

Urban North: Rosedale, Deer Park, Moore Park, Forest Hill, & Lawrence Park
House Average Price: $4,145,000
House Median Price: $3,700,000
127 Active Listings
4 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.62 (down from 2.78 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 24

Condo Average Price: $1,784,800
Condo Median Price: $1,249,000
181 Active Listings
5 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.84 (down from 3.04 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 8.8

Leaside, Davisville, Yonge & Eglinton
House Average Price: $1,732,300
House Median Price: $1,555,000
29 Active Listings
3 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 0.95 (down from 1.71)
Average Days on Market ~40

Condo Average Price: $668,643
Condo Median Price: $680,000
136 Active Listings
7 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.52 (up from 2.49last mth)
Average Days on Market ~ 12.71

Birch Cliff
House Average Price: $1,020,250
House Median Price: $960,500
19 Active Listings
0 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 1.01 (up from 0.93)
Average Days on Market ~ 23

Kingston Rd Corridor to Highland Creek

House Average Price: $936,136
House Median Price: $902,500
47 Active Listings
11 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 1.21 (down from 1.45)
Average Days on Market ~ 26.46

Condo Average Price: $542,500
Condo Median Price: $542,500
58 Active Listings
2 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.30 (down from 2.89)
Average Days on Market ~ 37.50

Any questions? The entire team and I are here to help. Email/comment/text/smoke signal, and we’ll get back to you.

Have a wonderful day, and I’ll see you next week. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog so you get this in your inbox asap, and we’ll see you on Youtube!

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