Being that we are Toronto’s oldest and largest independent real estate brokerage, it’s safe to say that we have seen it all. We know the weather has an impact on people’s motivation to get out and look at houses, but this week we are going to blame the decrease in listings solely on the shoulders of Justin Beiber. Yes, that’s right. We know HE is real cause for our real estate turmoil. Toronto is wrapped up in a giant game of “Where’s Beiber” instead of getting their homes ready for market. Well at least we aren’t thinking about the cold anymore and provided “the Biebs” doesn’t get deported from the US, everything should return to normal in a week or two. We can’t wait.

Just when we thought more homes would come on the market, we experienced a sudden reversal of fortune. Following several consecutive weeks of rising inventory we witnessed a 4% slip this week. Okay, that’s not much in the grand scheme of things but buyers are lining up. Need another example? This week we had the second wild bidding war with a major fixer upper in Roncesvalles receiving 34 offers. While sales improved by 9% this week we can report that multiple offers occurred on an incredible 54% of the homes sold.

The condo market is perplexing at best. Listings decreased by 10% week over week, while sales only slipped by 5%. From our perspective the condo market continues to show strength as nearly 20% of the weekly sales occurred at or above the list price and nearly 90% of the properties sold are within 1% of the asking price. Clearly there is appetite for condominium living in the city. It is interesting to point out that the biggest decrease in available suites happened in the central neighbourhoods in the entry level category.