With a projected 7,000 plus sales for February, Toronto’s market looks like it will set a record for the month.
The previous February sales high was 6,866 houses and condominiums changing hands in 2002 although 2006 and 2007 also were within a few hundred sales of this number.
Although the Toronto Star painted January sales as “crazy”, the 4,986 sales were lower than either 2007 or 2008. They were only ‘crazy’ when compared to the dismal performance in January 2009 when we were at the absolute bottom of the market here in Toronto.
Listing inventory continues to be a problem… we now have the lowest number of houses and condominiums on the market since before 2000… and this is causing Toronto’s market to be extremely busy.
Condo purchases have been very steady, taking up just over one-third of sales in the past six months.
What about that ‘bubble’ the media is so f0nd of talking about? The problem is, they’re comparing this year to 12 months ago – an unfair comparison considering the world was imploding then.
When you compare current 2010 sales to those of 2008 or 2007, the changes are not so dramatic.
Take a look at the chart below. You’ll see that the average sale price on the Toronto Real Estate Board increased a modest 5.5% annually on average over the last 13 years.
Compare this to double-digit sale price increases across many US communities in the first several years of the decade – which caused their market to crash and reprice itself. Unlike the Americans, our busy markets are almost confined to two major cities – Toronto and Vancouver – and this is due to the strong economies, and buyer confidence, in both.
January 2010’s average sale price for condos and houses in Toronto was $409,058, actually down 0.7% from December 2009’s average. The February 2010 average to the mid-month point was $429,997 – definitely a leap up if it is sustained in the coming months.
TREB Sale Price Data
Remember that we hit a high of $423,559 for the average sale price in October of last year which couldn’t be sustained.
We’re certainly seeming some effects from the advent of HST as of July 1st. Infill home builders are seeing increased sales with deliveries prior to the end of June.
I’ve had a couple of resale clients tell me they’d like to close prior to the introduction of the HST to avoid the extra tax on the various closing expenses.
If it’s like the advent of the City of Toronto land transfer tax two years ago, people will be held back for a few months but will soon take the additional costs into account almost naturally and the extra bit of tax will just be another ‘cost of doing business’.
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