Market Is Up
What Happened To The Toronto Real Estate Market Crash?
The media has been desperately trying to crash the Toronto Real Estate market for months now in a desperate attempt to sell print media. The government has been trying to slow it down by changing the mortgage rules. Neither approach has worked well beyond a natural seasonal slowing of the marketplace. The New Year has kicked off to a good start and the market is moving at a good clip again.
This Just in From First National Bank.
Multi-time buyers will be the biggest force in the market
The predicted slump in Canada’s housing market has failed to materialize. Apart from two areas of acute weakness – Toronto‘s condo market and Vancouver in general – there has been an orderly retreat.
While the December 2012 figures in Toronto, for example, showed a 20% drop in sales compared to the year before, the January 2013 numbers show a modest 1.3% decline year-over-year. At the same time prices for a single family home rose 4.3% year-over-year. Elsewhere in the country, away from the Toronto and Vancouver volatility, Calgary saw sales climb 15% while Edmonton was up 3%.
Interestingly homes in the $1 million-dollar-plus range saw a 3.5% increase sales increase in January. This would back-up recent survey results from Re/Max Realty that indicate a shift in the buyers who are driving the market. The survey suggests that second-time and multi-time buyers will be the biggest force in the market with some 70% being serious about making a move in the next two years. First time buyers made-up about 30% of those who’d buy in the same time period.