It’s hard to believe that we are almost half way through 2020 and in the middle of a pandemic, with unemployment at an all time high, millions of people without a job, and the Toronto real estate market couldn’t care less. If you are looking for a Covid-discount you’re not going to find it here. What you will find, just weeks after the worst month of sales, are multiple offers and buyers and sellers with more and more confidence. No one expected the market to take off like this. Buyers were on pause for a couple months, but they seem to be jumping back in with a frenzy. Case in point – we have a listing in our office in Bloordale Village that has 139 booked showings and offers are on Monday. You’re lucky if you can even get in to show it now. No double bookings and only a few time slots left!
Could this be that HSBC just lowered its five-year fixed mortgage rate to 1.99%, becoming the first bank in Canada to crack the 2% barrier? It comes down to supply and demand. With a low supply of available product in the marketplace, the activity taking place is still a sellers’ market. Even though CMHC forecasted housing prices across the country to drop between 9 and 18% over the next 12 months, the 416 does not represent the entire country and the Toronto real estate market doesn’t seem to be adhering to many of the forecasts and predictions. You have to be thinking about where prices are going to be in 10 years, not just in 6 months from now.
Last week the freehold market saw a marginal 6% increase in new listings and of those, 51 listings were listings over 3 million dollars. Sales surged by 41%, and of those sales 57% sold at or above the asking price. The condo market is also seeing an uptick in activity with 22% more new listings last week and sales were up 16%, with 39% selling at or above the list price and the majority of the sales were under $700K.
