Corinne McCabe , Broker

No question about it, if you like it dry, hot and sunny then this has been the best summer ever. If you’ve lost out on multiple offers and are frustrated with the low inventory of homes then this has been the worst summer. While the weather is likely to cool, we don’t expect inventory levels to pick up significantly in the near future.

The freehold sector experienced a small uptick in the number of available homes coming to market last week while sales dwindled by about the same amount (38%). If history teaches us anything it’s that next week’s sales numbers will improve dramatically since most homes coming to market include an offer date a week or more in the future. Still, historically low inventory levels are driving up prices and producing multiple offers in nearly 62% of home transactions last week.

The condo sector continues its successful march. last week we registered a 19% increase in new listings while sales continue to hold steady with 282 suites sold in the 416. Overall, nearly 39% of all units that traded sold at or above the list price, the second highest percentage on record. The east core, representing Leslieville, Riverdale and the Beaches, certainly has fewer condo units available but competition for those units is the strongest with 6 out of 8 selling for more than the list price, and it seems that the bigger they are the more offers they are receiving.   

Bosley Real Estate Ltd. is a full service boutique brokerage operating in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Jordan, 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 on the true temperature of the real estate market.

It’s mid July and the first smell of a calmer real estate market is in the air. The kids are happily ensconced in camp, the roads are less congested, the Blue Jays are closing in on first place and you've got your new favourite book packed and ready to take to the cottage. This is what life in the big city is supposed to look like! Sure it's hot, but we are Torontonians. We can brush off the heat alerts faster than The Four Tenors can brush off a member of their troop.

The freehold sector has finally loosened up some of its grip on listings as last week there was a 27% increase of homes to choose from. Sales remained strong with 156 sales in the 416 and only 64.7% sold at or above asking. The hot spot for the week was the east core where there were 10 more sales than listings which boosted multiple offers to well over 75%. Sup-ply and demand dynamics remain firmly in place in Toronto. As a comparison, last year, for the same period, there were 34% more listings and 9% fewer sales (with a dreamy level of only 54% of homes selling at or above the list price).

The condo market continues to show its fortitude. Last week it recorded 592 new listings across the 416 compared to a staggering 750 at the same time last year. While listings are down, sales are up over 33% to 295 but what is really astonishing is the number of condos selling at or over the list price. Last year that number was 18.5% compared to 33.6% last week. Sales above the list price has not dipped below 30% since mid February of 2016.

Bosley Real Estate Ltd. is a full service boutique brokerage operating in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Jordan, 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 report on the true temperature of the real estate market.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve hit the half way point of 2016 already. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the start of the spring market. Ah, those were heady times, buyers sat patietly waiting for the impending influx of new listings to satisfy a hungry desire for a place to call home. Well, months later, many of those same buyers are still waiting. New listings barely trickled to the market causing more multiple offers than ever before, not just on houses but condos as well.

It’s not unusual for listings to taper off before long weekends. The last thing anyone wants to do is hang around the city when all their friends are at the cottage. That explains the 46% decline in new listings last week. On the other hand, if you are determined to buy there is a slight chance that your buyer competition is also sitting by the dock somewhere. Clearly that was the thinking last week as sales only backed off by a marginal 17% and we still recorded 70% of homes trading at or above the list price.

Condo market buyers and sellers expressed a similar sentiment. Listings backed off by 25.5% while sales slipped by 19%. The condo market is still filling in the gaps left by the housing market as 35.5% of all condos sold happened at or above the list price. For a better understanding of how the market has performed consider that two years ago a mere 12% of condos sold in multiple offers.   

First we had Brexit and this week we have "schexit" also known as the last day of school (a unanimous vote to leave). For parents it means no more early morning rush to get the kids packed and out of the house. Traffic around the city gets a little lighter even with increased construction. But as we cruise into those hot summer months we have the opportunity to take a bit of a breather from our fast paced lives, take a trip out of town, enjoy some time sitting by the dock or under your favourite patio umbrella...unless you are trying to buy a house, in which case all bets are off.

The freehold sector remained relatively unchanged from the previous week. Listings were only down slightly while sales held the line. Competition for homes is still strong with three out of every four sales happening at or above the list price. While this is frustrating buyers across the 416 that same enthusiasm for home ownership is spreading throughout the province. We have seen multiple offers on homes in Markham, London, Barrie and even little island get-aways in Georgian Bay.  

Like the freehold market, the condominium sector is behaving in a similar manner. Listings are down a slight 1% and sales backed off only slightly. This seems in line with the historical trends as we enter the summer months. It is interesting to note that sales at or above the list price continue their scorching pace with a new record 43.1%. Bigger suites in the downtown core, particularly those in the $700k-$1.5m range are recieving the most attention with over half selling above the list price. In our opinion this is a clear indication of shifting trends in the residential market.

In real estate terms we call this time of the year the final push. It's that time for sellers to get into the market just before summer hits and thoughts turn to sipping beverages by the lake or taking the family on a summer adventure. Whatever your plans are, if you are a buyer, this is the time to consider getting into the market as new listings will tend to taper off over the next few months.

A 36% increase in new listings over the last week made a significant contribution to the choices that buyers had. New listings appeared equally across the 416 with a notable increase in the $700k-$1.5m price range. The first time buyer market, $400k-$700k continues to be tight across the downtown core although there seems to be a bit more choice in the west core. Despite the increase in new listings, sales have remained virtually unchanged yet of the 195 homes sold, 145 of them sold over asking (74.3%).

The condo market was a little less forthcoming in new listings last week, increasing available units by 14.5% to 614. While that seems like a large inventory it is important to recognize that sales also improved by over 6% and 38.2% of all transactions in the resale condominium sector happened at or above the list price. This continues to be the trend for 2016.

Low interest rates, immigration, shortage of housing. These are the “go to” topics used to describe Toronto’s housing dilemma. Frankly we are starting to sound like a broken record these days. The truth is that while these are sources of a frustrating market, they don’t tell the full story of Toronto’s great housing success. Simple demographic shifts in population mean that over the next 20 years more and more people will be moving to cities and Toronto is one of the top destinations on the global stage. For the foreseeable future this could be the new normal.

The freehold sector continues to tighten its grip on the market with a 34.4% decrease in new listings and a 46.2% increase in sales. Those two factors contribute to the perfect storm of price increases as nearly 75% of homes traded last week sold above the list price. It’s interesting to take a quick peek at the market from one year ago when we had nearly twice as many new listings and just marginally more sales for the same period. The truth is that federal policies can’t slow down Toronto’s speeding train of price appreciation. The simple solution is to add more housing to the existing stock. Change the balance, change the market.

The condominium sector is feeling the same intensity and pressure from lack of listings as the freehold market. Consider that active new listings have retreated by 8.2% over the last two weeks while sales have increased by 22.2%. In addition, we have hit the highest percentage of condos selling at or above the list price, now nearly 41%. In the central core’s $400k-$700k market nearly 50% of sales were in multiple offers and for the first time the ultra high end category (condos over $3m) are receiving multiple offers. 

Bosley Real Estate Ltd. is a full service boutique brokerage operating in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Jordan, 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 report on the true temperature of the real estate market.

It might be Friday the thirteenth, but this week the luck is all good, especially if you are a seller with a hot property to move. With the spring market in fully gear we are seeing a significant ramp up of new listings and, of course, the corresponding increase in sales. Inventory levels are still critically low which means that even those homes that would otherwise be considered “locationally challenged” are selling quickly.

The freehold market recorded a solid 15.7% increase in new listings last week. Normally we would say that this was just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, that increase was overshadowed by a nearly 19% increase in sales with a strong 79% selling at or above the list price, the highest level in 2016 so far. The majority of the new listing activity came in the central core, while the hottest area for sales was in the east with nearly 87% of homes selling at or above the list price.

The condo market had a spectacular week with a 6.4% increase in new listings, to 661, while sales rose by 8.9% to 318 suites. Nothing truly shows the pure strength of the condo market like the number of transactions that took place at or above the list price and last week we set a new record in the 416 recording a remarkable 37.4% of units sold. The hottest price point is the $700k to $1.5m across all core marketplaces which we recognize as a reaction to homebuyers being priced out of freehold homes.

Toronto's real estate market is hotter than the release of the new Drake album. Our recommendation is to get used to the "new normal" of low interest rates and tight supply. In our opinion, strong fundamentals for continued growth in the housing and condominium sector across the Greater Golden Horseshoe will continue for some time. 

With any luck the number of freehold listings should increase over the next few weeks, as is the typical spring tradition. Last week we saw a modest 7.7% increase in listings which paled in comparison to the 47% increase during the previous week however sales were off by nearly 12% which could be attributed to the number of holdbacks (a later date set for offer reviews) of properties listed the week before. Despite a lower number of sold homes, our research indicated that 71.1% sold at or above the asking price.

The condominium sector has the ability to confound us from time to time. last week we recorded a marginal 3% drop in new listings online and a 8.9% decline in sales. That would generally lead us to believe that pressure in this sector was easing off a bit however the key market indicator, sales at or above the list price, remains at close to an all-time high at 35%. No surprise that the hot price point of the condo market remains suites under $700,000 price point.

Bosley Real Estate Ltd. is a full service boutique brokerage operating in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Jordan, 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 report on the true temperature of the real estate market.