The Ontario government has lifted the ban on public open houses effective today in regions entering Stage 3 and Toronto is expected to follow suit by the end of the month. But is this such a good idea? Will sellers allow them? And will buyers attend? And what about the safety of the Realtor? The topic has become a hot one among real estate agents. Many people would attend open houses as a pastime – even if they weren’t planning to buy right away. Open houses were just an easy way to see homes and sometimes viewed as an ineffective way of driving traffic to a property. So far business has been booming in Toronto and the surrounding regions with no open houses. Sales representatives can now market your home effectively using an array of technological tools that can be accessed easily by buyers. Virtual viewings are now mainstream, have increased in popularity and have a much wider audience reach. Statistics show that consumers using virtual tools are more likely to reach out to a Realtor. If agents had been unable to do business maybe open houses would be necessary, but agents and their clients have adapted to the new ways of doing business. Safety first…

The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) recently retained Nanos Research to do a survey among Ontarians actively in the real estate market. The takeaway was that despite economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, homeownership is seen as a good investment.

Here are some of the results…

Toronto home sales rebounded in June, with the average selling price up 12% from the same month last year to $1,022,138. (first time we have surpassed $1 million) For the GTA region the average price of a home hit $930,869 also up 12%. Competition is heating up again with multiple offers and bids well over asking prices. Home buyers were forced to put their purchases on hold when the pandemic hit in March. Now that Ontario and Toronto are easing restrictions, buyers have started to pounce. The GTA saw 8,701 homes sold in June, up 84% compared to May and signals suggest that some of that momentum is continuing into July…

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to put downward pressure on the rental market nationally. A growing supply of apartments, mostly in the condo sector are hitting the market as Covid has stalled immigration and sent university students and some hourly workers home to live with their parents. In Toronto, rents declined .7% year-over-year. In downtown areas with concentrations of short-term rentals and neighbourhoods with large student populations, there has been an uptick in vacancies and rent incentives to try and fill units that have emptied out. Total lease transactions in the GTA condo market grew 16% year-over-year during Q1-2020 to reach 7,002 units — the highest first quarter total on record. The post-COVID-19 period saw a steep decline in activity, with lease volume down 25% compared to the same period a year earlier…

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…

Open houses have been suspended throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and while real estate services were declared essential and have continued uninterrupted, agents have innovating methods for home-showings like Facebook Live, 3-D video tours, Zoom and a good portion of real estate transactions including paperwork occurs electronically. Consumers are adapting during this extraordinary time, and their willingness to embrace new tools tells us that the Canadian dream of home ownership remains strong, even during the COVID-19 pandemic…

Home sales are showing signs of improvement in the Toronto real estate market, but economists say it's far too early to feel optimistic about the possibility of recovery from the devastating effects of COVID-19. Activity in the region improved in May compared with April, according to figures the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board released Wednesday. But it remained less than half of what we saw a year ago. “The pandemic knocked the wind out of what was expected to be among the strongest spring seasons in home-sales history, said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending.”…

With large companies extending their work-from-home policies economists are predicting that real estate trends might shift and cause a “suburban boom” in the housing market. These trends in the job market could lead to housing preferences that move away from dense metropolitan areas and an outward migration of young families that could be considered the new “hipsturbia”…