Market Highlights

The state of Toronto real estate is always a hot topic and tends to conjure more questions than answers. The Richards Group’s Cameron Levitt addresses the most common questions we’ve been hearing from buyers and sellers.

"I'm looking to trade up. How does this market affect me? Or does it?”

Consider selling first to have budget certainty. This is a considerable change in approach from years past because those who had sold first risked getting priced out as the market moved higher quickly. There are still some details to navigate when selling first, but it's an approach many are choosing.

“Are there good deals out there right now?”

A boilerplate answer isn't the right way to answer this question! Prices are lower, but carrying costs are at 20-year highs. So you need an individually tailored approach to risk based on your planned leverage and ability to weather potentially higher interest rates in the future.

“Are there still multiple offers and lots of competition?”

The listing statistics are a bit misleading and bloated, as there are still some sellers on the market trying to get a price from six months ago. But these houses won't sell.

The inventory of quality, appropriately priced homes is actually very low. So multiple offers are still happening in some cases. But competition is also very areaand price-point dependent. Many buyers have paused or were priced out of the budget they had in Q1. That said, the irrational bidding wars where prices made no sense are gone.

“Has the bubble burst?”

Despite what the media says, a bubble bursting isn't a 15-to-20- percent drawdown in housing prices. If you want to see what a bubble bursting looks like, check out NFTs, crypto, SPACs, the ARKK ETFs or any of the other speculative junk that got supercharged by firehose fiscal/monetary policy. Real estate still is a less risky asset.

“What's the East End market like compared to last year?”

Last September/October was a fairly standard autumn market. This year, there are more unanswered questions about the future.

In 2021, there was a predictable rise in activity coming out of a slow summer. In 2022, we’re still seeing that same dynamic with sales activity up off the summer low. Interestingly, this rebound in the East End is counter-trend to the rest of the GTA market, where it appears that September will be the lowest number of transactions for the year. The big difference between this year and last is that values are down 15-20 percent this year from a large shock to buyer sentiment, whereas last year, prices were fairly steady coming out of the summer.

Questions? Ask Me Anything!

Cam is always happy to answer questions or discuss trends in the market. Email cameron@therichardsgroup.ca to submit your questions!