With just a few more weeks before Christmas, home buyers are spending more time shopping for gifts for their loved ones. Hey, that’s okay. After a blistering fall pace, only hampered by a lack of listings, it might be nice for buyers to sit back, enjoy some holiday spirit and relax for a change. Mind you, the hearty shoppers are still out there looking for a bargain or two. As an example…this week we listed a semi-detached home in The Junction and within 16 hours it had over 35 showings.

Freehold listings continue to get scarcer. This week, new listings backed off another 12% while sales decreased across the central and east/west cores by nearly 30%. Last week we hit a high of over 60% of homes
selling at or above asking price, this week that number is a much more realistic 40%. Perhaps people have left the Black Friday mindset and returned to more rational thinking?

There was one nice surprise this week. While condominium listings pulled back a further 10% week over week, sales actually increased by 12% (one of the biggest week over week gains of the year). Of the 125 sales that took place in the core, almost 14% sold at or above asking price. Ok, so not as great as the freehold sector, but we continue to be optimistic about the condo market as we move into 2014. Overall, the happy meter is moving out of the “real estate bubble” category and into the “cautious optimism” category. Lets’ hope that in 2014 the arrow passes straight into the “joyous jubilation” range.