The dog days of August are upon us, but great news for the Toronto Real Estate market. The average sale price for the City of Toronto in July was $824,336, up 8% compared to July of last year which was $759,441. The positive results over the last two months are very encouraging. Toronto's housing market seems to be stabilizing from the federal government's tighter mortgage rules that came into effect in January. The scarcity of listings helps to keep prices firm. Buyers who were cautious are feeling a little more confident the market does not have further to fall. With all this encouraging good news it looks like we could be trending toward positive territory for the second half of 2018!

The freehold market recorded a 29% uptick in new listings last week. Most of the new listing activity was recorded in the central core, with 16 new listings priced above $3M and as high as $39M. Sales however took a tumble last week with 30% less sales then the week before. Clearly, people were thinking more about enjoying a cold beverage by the lake with the long weekend approaching, than buying a house. But having said that 53% of all homes sold, occurred at or above the asking price.

Condo market buyers and sellers expressed a similar sentiment. This seems in line with historical trends as we are now in the summer month of August. New listings were up 36% from a week earlier and the majority of the new listings were in the $400K to $700K price range once again. Though sales were down by 28%, overall sales activity remains brisk with 51% of condos selling at or above the asking price.