Last week's real estate market update could best be described by the simple phase "no news is good news". Across the downtown core, the east side and west side it appears that while listings are inching lower, there is plenty of appetite for buying a home, but the inventory is not there. We are witnessing the last hooray before the listing taps start to close over the winter holidays. Give it time though. In talking with our agents, we know that many buyers are waiting patiently for the spring market. In a couple of months pent up demand will return and buying a home will look like Black Friday at a big box store.

The freehold sector saw an overall drop in new listings and sales throughout all neighbourhoods. New listings were in short supply down 6%, and sales only saw a small 2% dip. However, because of the shortage in new listings we are still experiencing multiple offers and a whopping 62% of all sold properties sold at or above the asking price. There is a clear indication that on a year-over-year basis we are still well ahead of 2018. So far this year the Toronto Real Estate board has recorded 76,413 sales compared to 68,084 last year.

The condo market also saw a small dip in new listings last week, down 14%, but the good news is sales were up 13% week-over-week. There was also an increase in the percentage of properties selling above the listed price, up to 51% from last week's 43% selling in bidding wars. With the increasing average price for freehold properties going up we expect the condo market to remain strong in the coming new year.