Corinne McCabe , Broker

Pride week in Toronto was a colourful success and Bosley's participation in Family Pride was a whole lot-of-fun! As we are coming up to the much anticipated "Canada 150" long weekend, this will be a weekend to participate in the festivities around town. With so many events happening in Toronto to celebrate Canada's big birthday it will be hard to narrow down which events to attend.  (Check them out here)

It's not unusual for listings to start tapering off before a long weekend. Last week new listings were down slightly by 9% for the freehold sector compared to the week before, but in the condo market, new listings were up a whopping 43%. Interestingly half of the freehold homes in the $700 to $1.5m range, sold over the asking! In the central core it seems that first time buyers are taking advantage of the $400 -$700 price range where more than 50% of the action was. As a TD economist pointed out, last month marked the first time since 2010 that growth in condo prices in Canada outpaced the rise in single-family home prices.

We have seen plenty of rain this summer, almost as much as we have listened to the media, which continues to report a cooling market, but there are great buys out there. The art of negotiating is upon us. We are seeing a shift in the market but the sky is not falling. Overall, prices are still up but expectations need to be managed.

How lucky are we to live in a country as cool as Canada! Happy Canada Day eh!

Back in the old days of real estate the Realtors® would work hard up until the end of June and then they would take the summer off, as did most of their clients. Over the past many years the Spring market has lasted well into the summer with usually just a short break in the dog days of August. We are definitely feeling old school with the slow pace of listings and even slower pace of sales heading into summer this year. It reminds us though, as the families stop thinking about real estate and start thinking about camp, that there is a new summer real estate season driven by the tens of thousands of students who flock to the city to study at one of the many universities. The smart ones are looking for rentals already and the rest will arrive over the next few months. This puts tremendous pressure on the city’s rental stock which in turn pushes at the lower end of the condo market as desperate parents buy condos for their lovely offspring that just couldn’t find that perfect apartment.  And right now in Toronto the hottest part of our market is the entry level condo market.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported that in the first two weeks of June the value of condominiums increased 23% over last year. Prices, however, have eased off slightly from their peak in April down a marginal 3%. We are not all that surprised as we continue to see reduced inventory, especially in the sub-$700,000 range where listings in the central core are down 33% over the previous week. Overall new condo listings were down 25% over the previous week but are up 12% over the same week last year. Sales declined for the third week in a row to 134 from 143 the previous week and the number of condos selling above their list price is down to 41%.  Again the most active segment of the condo market was the sub-$700,000 with 49% of sales occurring over their listed price.

Unlike the condo market, the Toronto Real Estate Board reports that the Freehold market only increased in value 10% over the same time last year. Perhaps more importantly the average price of a detached home in the 416 is down 10% from its peak price at the end of April. Listings continue to decline as we approach the summer months and were down another 10% over the previous week. Sales also continued their declined in numbers down 10% from the previous week.  For the first time this year the percentage of freehold properties that sold above their advertised price was below 50% coming in at 48%.  Thinking in our old school way, we will see you on the dock in July. 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.

If the real estate market were like a game of golf we would probably be on the back nine right now wondering if we were going to pull our game together or bogey our way to the clubhouse.  If you are a Seller you are definitely wondering how your game fell apart so quickly after hitting the fairway with every drive and sinking every putt through the beginning of the season. The confusing part might be why the Buyers haven’t picked up their game as we finish out the season. The market has definitely started to slow down early for the summer and the jury is still out on whether the Sellers who sold in March hit the hole in one or if the Buyers grabbing properties during this quieter time will be the ultimate winner.

In the Freehold market new listings have eased off nearly 13% from last week down from 401 to 350 this week.  Almost the entire decline in listings occurred in the central core where new listings declined from 196 to 148 which interestingly is on par with the new listings from the same week last year which were 147. Last year was not a year with an abundance of listings so it is interesting to note that we have not seen a flood of properties to the market.  Sales also continued to decline down to 148 from 167 the previous week. The number of properties that sold over their advertised continued to decrease with 52% selling above the listed price.

The condo market saw an increase in new listings over last week with 367 new listings coming to market compared to the 332 that were listed the previous week. Like the freehold market, sales of condos are not keeping up with the pace of new listings allowing for more choice for buyers.  Condo sales declined nearly 33% from the previous week down to 143 from 213.  Condo bidding wars are also starting to become a thing of the past with only 44% of all sales going above their listed price.,

This week we had to order three extra bottles of water for the water cooler as it seemed everyone was spending an inordinate amount of time chatting about what to do next in real estate.  We watched as the listings went down before the long weekend and as expected that resulted in lower sales last week.  And as is typical after a long weekend the numbers of new listings jumped substantially thereafter. The trend we have been watching carefully is the number of sales that are occurring above their listed price.  In both the condo and freehold market that number has dropped below 50% and perhaps the most surprising thing is that more condos (49%) sold above their list price than freehold properties (48%).  The other common refrain we hear is that the Sellers are hoping to wait out the hesitant Buyers by holding off their listings until the fall market arrives in September.  We seemed to have misplaced our crystal ball (might have left it by the water cooler) so are unable at this time to decide if waiting for the Fall market will be the winning strategy.

The Freehold market saw an expected decline in sales during the week after the May ‘24’ long weekend.  It was a larger drop than we have witnessed after other long weekends with sales falling 49% to 94 sales from the previous week. This is the lowest number we have witnessed in a week since the beginning of the Spring market.  Listings also followed the predictable post-long weekend pattern surging 52% to 406 form 266 in the previous week. This number is in line with the weekly inventory we have been seeing all Spring. 

The condo market followed a similar pattern with sales dropping 28% to 133 from 185 the week before.  Listings climbed with 41 new units on the market for a total of 380 new listings, up 12% from the previous week.  The bulk of new listings came out in the downtown core and were in the $400-700,000 range.  There has been some interesting press this week about the city pushing for more large family friendly condos to be built and we will watch this news carefully in the coming months.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.

Dear Vancouver, we are wondering if what is going on with our market is the same thing you went through last year?  You see, our listings continue to go up and sales have dropped off substantially. Yet the Toronto Real Estate Board just released the mid-May statistics and shared that in the first two weeks of May prices have gone up over 17% compared to the same time-frame last year.  And you might want to sit down for this next stat, because the leader of the pack was none other than condominium apartments which increased over 28% in value over the same period last May. Now we should also point out that the average price of a detached home in the 416 has actually declined slightly from the end of April going down in value 1.8%. Condominium apartments did increase in value over the end of April, but to be honest at an increase of .2% it is basically a rounding error.

We were happy to see that the listings in the Freehold market declined last week over the previous week.  Don’t get us wrong we love to see new listings but last week happened to be the week before the last of the Spring market long weekends and well, listings are supposed to go down before a long weekend. The 46% decline in listings last week to 266 from 496 the previous week is a similar proportionate drop to those we witnessed around earlier spring holidays. It was also very interesting to note that sale numbers crept up slightly moving up 3% to 204 from 188 the previous week.  The first increase in sale numbers in three weeks. We continue to see a declining number of sales that are recorded above their listed price and are hearing anecdotally that many of those sales that did go over their list price did so with only a single offer and clearly some good negotiating.

The condominium market also saw a decline in new listings last week down 25% to 339 over the previous week which saw 451 new listings come to market.  There was also a slight uptick in condo sales last week up 3% over the previous week. The condominium market continues to witness the decline in units selling for more than the advertised price with a meager 57% of all sales going above their listed price.

In the eighties the world was introduced to a new toy known as the Rubik’s Cube.  There ensued a massive uptake of the toy amongst the general population despite the fact that the only way most of us could actually solve the puzzle was to take the stickers off and put them back on so it appeared as though we had completed the Cube. Anytime something like the Rubik’s Cube comes around the question of Fad vs. Trend begins to be talked about.  That same question has begun to be discussed about the Toronto real estate market and it is a question that we will only answer with time. The Rubik’s cube has become the bestselling puzzle of all time.  I think we can declare that one a trend. As we head into the last holiday weekend of the spring season we will watch carefully to see how the market reacts when everyone is back to work on Tuesday. Have we witnessed a fad in our market or are we looking at the beginning of a trend?

The freehold market continued to see increases in inventory and declines in sales for the third straight week.  New listings increased 9% over the previous week from 454 to 496.  It is important to note when looking at those numbers that we have seen a marked increase in re-lists, those properties that were priced for a bidding war that did not come to be and have been put back on the market at a higher price.  It has been reported that as many as 20% of new listings are actually re-lists from properties that did not sell the previous week.  The drop in sales was again the exact opposite of new listings with sales dropping 10% over the previous week. The largest drop in sales was reported in the west end though it is interesting to note that 85% of all west end sales were above their list price compared to an average of 72% for the rest of our study area.

In the condo market we believe we are seeing a trend as the percentage of listings that sold above their advertised price again declined with 66% of all listings selling above their listed price.  It is important to note that it appears the days of huge offer premiums above the list price for condos are likely over. While many sales are still achieving a mark above the list price the percentage above list price continues to decline.  Condos saw a 5% increase in listings but for the first time in four weeks saw a decline in sales down 9% over the previous week.

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.

As we settled into our sales meetings this week the topic of the day was definitely what was happening to the market and if the recent government changes have had the desired effect in increasing the affordability of housing in the city.  Much of our conversation centered around the differences between the massive downturn in the market in 1989 versus the brief pause in the market we experienced in 2008. While admittedly none of us actually own a crystal ball, the general consensus was that these past few weeks will likely be a pause in the market and not a large correction as some Sellers are fearing and most Buyers are hoping for.  What we may be seeing as a result of this pause is a move towards more realistic pricing and less of setting a low asking price and letting the market show us the true value. All the more reason to make sure you hire a Realtor that knows how to properly price and market a property.

The freehold market saw an increase in new listings of 15% up to 454 from 394 the previous week.  It is normal at this time of year to see an increase in listings as the Spring market hits its stride and this increase seems far too low to indicate a flood of listings to the market by fearful home owners who think we are facing a serious price correction. In an exact opposite trend there was a 15% drop in the number of sales to 196 from the 232 over the previous week. This is a trend we will follow carefully as we are expecting a rebound in sales numbers over the coming weeks. While pre-emptive offers continue to disappear from the landscape it is interesting to observe that 73% of all homes still sold above their asking price.

The condo market continues to separate itself from the freehold market with a week that saw both new listings and sales increase over the previous week.  New condo listings increased 6% and sales kept very close track increasing 5% over the previous week. Condos also continue to sell above their list price with 75% of all sales happening above the advertised price.