Corinne McCabe , Broker

As the last of the children return to school from warm beaches and snowy hills we are reminded of our obligations as parents to teach our children to be kind to others. Under no circumstances do we permit bullying from our children to their peers. Of course, as adult Realtors we rarely take our own good advice and are constantly talking about Bully offers as the way to get a jump on hot listings before the set offer date.  Now don’t get me wrong, like all good adults when we are doing something so obviously wrong as being a Bully we take the mature step of re-naming the process to something much more socially acceptable, in this case the ‘Pre-emptive’ offer. So with all the talk of pre-emptive offers we decided to take a look at how common this really is and if it benefits the Seller to accept the ‘Pre-emptive’ offer.  In our sampling of freehold sales in 5 MLS districts (C01, C03, C10, C11, E01) we noted some interesting trends.  Pre-emptive offers are much more common downtown than uptown, with 25% of listings selling before their offer date south of Bloor and a mere 7% selling before their offer date once you go north of Eglinton. The other interesting fact is that the final sale price, as a percentage above the list price, was on average higher on offer night then when a Seller accepted a Pre-emptive offer. So while we remind our children not to be Bullies, we might also want to take the time to let our Seller’s know that the best strategy might be to ignore the ‘Bully’ when it comes their way.

In the Freehold market the number of new listings exploded last week while sales remained virtually unchanged from the week before.  New listings increased an astounding 100% compared to the previous week while sales increased a meager 5%.  While we are hopeful that the new listings will ease some of the pressure Buyers face on offer nights, we continue to believe that there is insufficient inventory for the obviously strong demand for freehold properties.  With a consistent 75% of all listings selling above their list price Buyers should keep a tight hold on the railing, the ride is not over yet.

Condos on the other hand continue to carve their own market, mostly in the downtown core.  There was also a significant increase in new available condos for sale but the inventory only increased 50% over the previous week while sales matched the increase of the freehold market at 5%. It is important to note that by far the majority of new condo listings and sales are happening in the central core with only 7% of condo sales occurring in the east or west parts of our research area.  Like the freehold market, condos have settled into a consistent 70% of sales occurring above the list price.

Excuse us if we seem a little distracted this month but we normally reserve our March Madness for that basketball tournament going on south of the border. Cinderella stories are all the rage when talking college basketball, but here in the Toronto market she can make it to the big event but never seems to catch the prince. Seeing your team get knocked out of the tournament can be maddening but at least you know that if they work hard and persevere they will be back next year. With competition in purchasing as strong as it has been all year, the real estate market is producing more losers than winners. And unlike the basketball teams heading home and thinking of next year, we worry Buyers will begin to take their ball home and call it quits.

With last week being the public school March Break we were not surprised to see both listings and sales in the freehold market down from the previous week. With all the families away for a well-deserved break it is common to see the market take a brief pause.  What didn’t take a pause was the bidding wars, with 75% of all homes selling above their list price.  Perhaps the amazing part of those sales is that when you look at sales under $1.5 million that number goes up to 87% and if you look only at those houses listed between $400,000-700,000 the number of homes sold above list hits a staggering 96%.

The condo market continues to differentiate itself from its freehold cousin and as always is less concerned with long weekends and family holidays. While sales were off marginally from the previous week, new listings surged with nearly 22% more units coming to market over the previous week. Where the condo market is not differing from the freehold market is in units selling above the asking price, with 68% of sales occurring above the list price.

While we always enjoy spending time with our families, after all we are a family company, we never like what happens before the Family Day long weekend. Or really any long weekend in fact. The thing is, Realtors never like to list right before a long weekend which inevitably means listings drop the week before the long weekend and that creates what we like to call the real estate inversion. Before the long weekend there are a lot of sales and hardly any new listings and right after the long weekend there are a lot of new listings but not as many sales.

Freehold listings followed this predictable pattern and are up 10% over the previous week yet remain historically low when looking at inventory over the past few years. Of course, the Spring market has sprung so we do expect to see the listing inventory climb as we proceed to the warmer months. While sales were down over the previous week they continue to outpace new listings. Perhaps a silver lining for last week was that the number of Freehold properties that sold in bidding wars eased off slightly from 77% to 61%.  Sorry, but we don’t expect that to be a trend moving forward.  Bidding wars are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The condo market has always been a little different around the long weekends and bucked the pattern with a decline in listings (down 27%) and a decline in sales (down 18%). Bidding wars followed a similar decline to the freehold segment going from 71% to 63%.  Holding back offers and bidding wars are a newer experience for the condo market and we are confident that with some practice it will follow the same long weekend trends the freehold market observes. If you are a follower of the long weekend calendar method of buying and selling real estate you have just over two weeks until March Break.  Happy Buying and Selling.

Bosley Real Estate Ltd. is a full service boutique brokerage operating in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Jordan and Port Hope, Ontario since 1928. We have four centrally located offices and over 250 sales representatives selling and leasing homes and condominiums in all the vibrant communities we work in. Our brand is well recognized internationally thanks to our unique affiliation with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. Our sales teams meet weekly to discuss market conditions, trending topics, and anecdotes that more accurately reflect the true temperature of the real estate market.