Week 156: The Market Has Shifted into a Seller’s Market Across the Board

What a wild week in Toronto Real estate. Absolute chaos at the offer table with up to 21 offers on an East End home, 9 offers on a complete tear-down fixer-upper in North Riverdale that sold for well over $2mm and countless other less dramatic bidding war scenarios.
What’s happening out there? Banks are reporting that mortgage inquiries are up over 50% from December. Will that sustain?

If you read last week’s report, I was questioning whether we’re experiencing what’s called a “dead cat bounce” in the trading world or are in recovery mode.

Am I putting too much weight on the potential (ok, very likely) rate increase in a couple of days?

Are buyers over-caring about minor rate hikes? Or are we seeing this heat with people trying to use up their low fixed-rate pre-approvals before fixed rates started to climb again last week?

For once in my career, I have more questions than answers.

But that’s what makes me such an excellent real estate broker and team leader. I’m constantly asking questions. And so should you!

I overheard some agents talking about how “there were no comparables” to justify a sale price when referring to a particular East End home that traded for about $200K more than a similar recent sale.

But they failed to see the value in the extra 3 feet of lot frontage. That additional 3 feet meant no visit to the committee of adjustments when applying for the building permit, saving six months carrying the property. You could easily put in a rentable garden suite, but the other property wasn’t comparable after all.

There’s so much more that goes into property pricing research than looking at “similar properties” you have to consider what a place might be worth to a developer and an end-user and understand their psychology and potential offer pricing strategy so we can give our buyer clients a fighting chance.

That’s when the work comes into play. Last week, I talked a little about doing the work. Ensure your agent is in the weeds with an understanding of global economics and a deeper understanding of local nuances so they can give you the complete picture of what you’re considering buying. It’s virtually impossible to make a terrible decision armed with that level of skill, local intelligence, and global knowledge.

Buyers, all deals are officially off the table except for Assignments. That’s it. Your window is closed for now. So if you’re looking for that needle in a haystack special deal in a great community…it’s gone. No matter how amazing you think your agent is, you won’t find it. It’s time to acknowledge that you missed the bottom of the market and to bump up your offers.

Sellers, please do me a favour and get yourselves to market asap. If you need to anyway. Supply is still so low in almost every Toronto community from top to bottom.

So let’s see what happens after the rate hike on March 2nd and the new employment numbers shortly after. That’ll give us a little window into what’s to come.

But I’ll tell you one thing. If buyers continue to ferociously go after properties after the rate hike on the 2nd, you best believe we’re in recovery mode, and this is not a dead cat bounce. But that’s yet to be seen.

What do you think?

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!

(please subscribe to the YouTube Channel here, where I go over all of these reports in more detail)

Continue scrolling for charts and numbers for all communities below 🙂

Urban Markets: Downtown & Surrounding Areas
House Average Price: $1,538,159
House Median Price: $1,390,000
338 Active Listings
43 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 1.22 (up from 0.94 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 20.35

Condo Average Price: $819,416
Condo Median Price: $719,950
1335 Active Listings
84 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.16 (up from 1.81 last month)
Average Days on Market (DOM) ~ 22.67

Urban North: Rosedale, Deer Park, Moore Park, Forest Hill, & Lawrence Park
House Average Price: $2,132,589
House Median Price: $2,052,800
104 Active Listings
9 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 1.84 (up from 1.65 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 17

Condo Average Price: $1,271,375
Condo Median Price: $975,500
189 Active Listings
8 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.85 (up from 2.14 last month)
Average Days on Market ~ 12

Leaside, Davisville, Yonge & Eglinton
House Average Price: $2,330,083
House Median Price: $2,180,000
34 Active Listings
3 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 1.11 (up from 0.75)
Average Days on Market ~13

Condo Average Price: $872,833
Condo Median Price: $646,500
120 Active Listings
3 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 2.01 (up from 1.61 last mth)
Average Days on Market ~ 28

Birch Cliff
House Average Price: $1,883,704
House Median Price: $1,750,000
18 Active Listings
3 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 0.74 (down from 0.89)
Average Days on Market ~ 33.33

Kingston Rd Corridor to Highland Creek
House Average Price: $1,063,400
House Median Price: $1,127,000
46 Active Listings
5 Firm Sales This Week
Months of Inventory (MoI) ~ 0.74 (up from 0.54)
Average Days on Market ~13.8

Condo Average Price: $511,667
Condo Median Price: $475,000
46 Active Listings
3 Firm Sales This Week
MoI ~ 1.81 (up from 1.63)
Average Days on Market ~ 52.33

Share: