Corinne McCabe , Broker

Last week’s real estate market update could best be described by the simple phrase “no news is good news”. Across the downtown core it appears that while listings are inching lower, there is still plenty of appetite for buying a home. Give it time though. In talking with our agents we know that many buyers are waiting patiently for the spring market. In a few months pent up demand will return and buying a home in Toronto will look like Black Friday at a big box store in the United States.

Despite more resale homes coming on the market in the central core, the east and west brought the overall number of listings down by 3% last week. Sales also dropped from 141 units in the previous week to 133 units; however, we are still reporting that over 42% of transactions took place at or above the list price, which is consistent with previous years. There are clear indications that on a year-over-year basis we are still well ahead of 2014.

Like the freehold sector, the condominium counterpart is behaving in a similar manner. Listings are down by 12% while sales are down by 7%. That 5% difference reflects the continued health of the condo market in Toronto. Additionally the number of sales at or above the list price has backed off less than 1% from the previous week, coming in at a respectable 19.4%.