Every once in a while you get ‘one of those weeks’ that prove the Toronto real estate market isn’t an island unto itself. Apparently there is life outside our little corner of the world. Last week we saw a perfect demonstration of how external forces affect real estate in our city as several houses in the downtown market didn’t sell on offer night. The major culprit…a brief blip in the Toronto Stock Market and a drop in value of the Canadian Dollar.

Freehold listings continued their descent from three weeks ago. From a fall high of 586, new listings are down another 17% this week while sales have backed off 35%. Even with fewer listings and sales our market is still in the Seller’s corner as nearly half the week’s sales were in multiple offer scenarios. While economic indicators took a negative turn last week we also believe that some Buyer exhaustion has played a role in fewer bidding wars. Looking forward to the upcoming weeks we believe that the trend toward fewer listings and multiple offers will level off at least until the next buyer cycle in mid-January.

It is interesting to note that this week the condominium sector out-performed the freehold sector. While listings were down only marginally, there was actually an increase in the number of sales at or above the asking price. This strikes us as continued good news for the condo sector and further proof that it is built on solid foundations. The central and higher-end segment of the market remains less robust than the mid-priced east and west areas of downtown Toronto due in part to larger and less expensive suite options.