Is it the last hooray or the last hurrah?  Either way, we're entering that phase now...

After a brief dip a few weeks ago, the number of new listings in both the freehold and condo sectors jumped last week. While this increase is still much lower than historical averages it forces the question…what gives? The simplest answer is that we are witnessing the last hooray before the listing taps start to close over the winter holidays.

While we recorded a healthy 41.6% increase in available listings in the freehold sector it is interesting to note that there are 27% fewer listings on the market compared to the same week one year ago. Having fewer listings hasn’t cooled the buying side. In fact, sales are greater than what were recorded in 2014 and the number of sales at or above the list price is slightly higher than the past year (49% compared to 45%). Of notable interest is the significant increase of listings in the ultra-high end market ($3M+) which climbed from 23 to 44 available listings last week in the central core bringing the total number of listings in this price category to 159.

At this point in the year, it’s fair to say that the condominium sector is the favourite child of Toronto’s real estate market. Compared to last year there are only 20 more condos available for sale across all price points but it is the sales numbers that truly astound. Last year at this time we recorded just 93 sales compared to the 205 sales that happened across Toronto’s core neighbourhoods last week. Of those sales, 20.5% happened at or above the list price. Wow!