Let’s agree to call the next few weeks the ‘calm before the storm’. Every year, in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays, the Toronto real estate market takes a little breather. After the biggest year on record in terms of transaction numbers and price appreciation, we feel some rest and relaxation is well earned. Judging by the activity around our offices we know that 2016 will be another strong year. We hope you have enjoyed our weekly market updates and look forward to reporting on Toronto’s downtown core in the new year.

No surprises here. Freehold listings are only about half of what they were two weeks ago and we think it is safe to say that listings will drop again next week too. While sales are falling at roughly the same rate we noticed that demand is still strong as over half the homes traded at or above the list price. Through conversations and meetings with our agents it is evident that most buyers have put their home buying plans on hold until after the holidays. 

Condo listings have backed off by 28% over the last few weeks and sales are down by 27%. We believe this orderly decline in both listings and sales indicates that the condo market, while still cyclical, is less prone to the wild swings of the freehold sector. That should come as welcome news to investors and end-users alike. We feel confident in saying that the resale condo market will have another strong year ahead since CMHC’s reported that the price gap between existing and prebuilt condos will narrow further.