She Sells, Seashells. End of the year Toronto Real Estate Report.

Life is like the ebb and flow of the tides...there are highs and lows. Remember that during low tide, you will find the best sea shells. ; )
I’m sending through my final real estate report for 2010.

This year has been a very interesting time for the Toronto Real Estate business. Twelve months ago, there was a sense euphoria spreading through the industry, new agents were flooding to the business and new companies popping up all the time. Since that time there have been many so called “experts” who were predicting the demise of the Toronto area real estate market. There was to be some sort of a “bubble” that was going to burst. Well it ended up that a bit of air out of an over-heated market leaked out. Has the market softened? Yes it has in most areas and is settling back to a more “normal” market. There are however several areas and price ranges in our market that are still hotter than ever, seeing multiple offers and over asking sales prices.


I just checked the stats for the Toronto Real Estate Board. As of December 15th there have already been 2,923 sales reported for the month. It looks like we’ll see well over 4,000 sales in total once December is done. That’s pretty darn good for a December. We are currently down to 13,360 homes for sale. That number has dropped by 1,700 in only 14 days. There are approx 3,000 listings that will expire by New Years day AND another 1,000+ will likely sell before the end of the month. I’m quite confident that the number of homes for sale on January will drop well below 10,000 units. For those of you who aren’t familiar with our market, that is a ridiculously low number. Right now (Yes … BEFORE Christmas) is probably the best time possible for anyone to list their home.

There are 3 main things that control a real estate market and what happens to prices. Inventory levels, interest rates and the local economy. Inventory levels are alarmingly low. Interest rates are very low and will stay low for quite a while. Our local economy is one of the strongest in the world and has barely skipped a beat throughout the turmoil in other countries. These 3 factors point to the market to continue to be healthy. We should see moderate increases in value and not the price drops being predicted by others. Activity will remain strong although not at the crazy pace we’ve experienced for the past few years. That’s a normal, healthy real estate market. Will there be casualties? Yes. Weak agents and weak real estate companies will struggle and there will be some who won’t be around 12 months from now. Agents AND real estate companies will need to make changes.

Real estate is a great business. Great agents who work hard will always do well no matter what is happening in the market.

Happy Holidays and CHEERS to 2011!