July Toronto Real Estate Board Sales Lowest Since 2002
Toronto Real Estate Board Stats - July 2010
So is it just a traditional summer market slowdown or is it the harbinger of a long-term decline in Toronto real estate sales? Only time will tell (hindsight is always 100%).
Although the average Toronto house and condo sale price at $420,482 was up 6.3% over 12 months ago, it was down 3.5% from June and a significantly lower 6.2% from May 2010. It IS typical that the summer month’s average does drop from the busy spring period of the year but the decline is not often as large as this.
House and condo sales across the Greater Toronto Area were down 31.2% from 2009 while listing inventory was up 21%. To put some relevance to that figure, in case you thought we were ‘overwhelmed’ with listing inventory, we had fewer listings in the month than during July of 2008, 2006, 2005 and 2004 (4 of the last 6 years).
This listings decline represented either the sale of homes that had to sell or the removal from inventory of homes by sellers who were unwilling to lower their expectations and decided to remove their home from the market.
This is not the time for agressive sellers looking for the ‘best price ever’. It does however offer an ‘opportunity’ for Toronto move-up families… they’ll get a lower price for their existing home BUT save on the purchase price of their new house or condo!
The ratio of sales-to-listings came in at 30.2%… just above neutral market territory (24-28%)… the lowest it’s been so far this year. This reflects a more balanced market devoid of multiple offer ‘crap’ which distorts the numbers for everyone and adds a lot of stress to the home buying process.
Downtown Toronto condo listing inventory was up just over 50% in C01 (west of Yonge) and in C08 (east of Yonge). The average sale price in C01 was up slightly over June (+0.7%) and down in C08 (-3.7%).
August sales for the first several days of the month show a decline from July but we did have the long weekend Civic holiday in there. The listing inventory has so far remained steady for the month.
Take a few minutes, grab a coffee or tea, and watch our July 2010 edition of Toronto’s Real Estate Market Report.
July Toronto Real Estate Board Sales Lowest Since 2002 is a post from: Toronto Real Estate Updates