Beach Wise Vibrant Beach neighbourhood will continue to attract buyers

This is due mainly to the consistent increases in consumer interest rates and the darkening economic clouds that many pundits predicted (and still do predict).

again forced to compete in multiple offer situations with more buyers than they had originally thought were in the buying mood.

circles was yet again how buoyant the market is, with prices on the upswing.

As “Springter” slowly faded away, and the warmer and sunnier weather has finally arrived, I thought I’d reflect upon the first three months of this year in the Beach real estate market, and ponder what’s around the corner as the Beach witnesses the first “normal” spring market in almost three years.

That is to say, our first spring market in the last three whereby the pandemic and the resulting fiscal and social policies are not playing outsized roles in the real estate market.

However, the remnants of the previous spring market are still weighing upon this spring market in some respects, due to the frantic pace and truly eye-popping increase in sale prices of the early 2022 market and the market slowdown that followed in the second half of last year.

If you follow real estate in general, you have undoubtedly heard that the number of sales and sale prices have taken a bit of a dive in much of the City of Toronto since the New Year (continuing a trend from mid- 2022).

Total firm sales reported on the MLS in the first three months of this year were almost 50 per cent less in the Beach area (E02) than in the first quarter the previous year, although the sale prices did not take as much of a hit as many thought they might have.

Limited inventory

The sale prices did drop around 10 – 15 per cent here in the Beach from the height of last year’s market in March, slowly declining through the middle to end of 2022, with that trend continuing into January and February.

Traditionally though, January and February are quieter months in real estate, with less inventory and buyers only kicking tires for the most part.

The late winter and earlyspring buyers who decided that the “best time to buy is when nobody else is” did take advantage of a market that seemed to be stagnant and favouring buyers.

However, those buyers were chasing a limited amount of listing inventory, and noticed that they were

Listing agents started noticing that trend as well when March rolled around, and once again changed their pricing strategy from the more traditional plan of determining a list price and not holding off on offers in order to entice buyers to strike quickly, back to once again setting aggressively low listing prices and holding back on accepting offers, or to seek a “pre-emptive” or Bully offer(s), and/or multiple offers on the offer date.

But that scheme wasn’t without risk either, as the MLS system started seeing a high frequency of suspended and terminated listings “re-listed” at new higher list prices, obviously because many buyers thought they had the momentum on their side and that sellers should feel the pinch this time.

However, the dearth of available inventory, especially in prime Beach locations has again forced many Buyers to the table in a competing offer scenario.

This is raising Beach sale prices, frustrating those first-time buyers, and the move-up buyers once again.

And as April dawned, the talk in Beach real estate

I’m not convinced that the market will get as crazy as it was in the first three to four months of 2022, or that prices will again hit those lofty heights this April and May.

Vibrant area

The current crop of buyers are constrained somewhat due to much higher interest rates than last year, and are showing signs of more due-diligence and self-control when in multiple offer situations.

Instead of a dozen or more offers for Beach properties priced aggressively low, there are indeed less, perhaps half that number.

But, whether its 12, 6, 3, or 1 offer, the sale price will still be very good in this market.

The siren call for owning a piece of the Beach neighbourhood will continue to attract buyers to this vibrant area going into May and June.

And that’s good news for Beach real estate prices. Depending what side of the fence you are on of course.

Thomas Neal is a wellknown and respected Beach real estate agent. He can be reached at dealwithneal77@ gmail.com or 416-460-4253.