June 30th – The Busiest Closing Day Ever?

Today is June 30th, 2010 which means that tomorrow is July 1st, 2010 – the day the earth will stand still as the dreaded HST era begins in Ontario.Today is quite possibly the busiest closing day in the history of Toronto.

The last week of June is traditionally the busiest of the year for closings as this marks the official start to summer as well as the end of the school year. People want to be in their new homes for the summer months and parents don’t want to move until their kids are finished school. Over the past several months, a huge percentage of the resale transactions that have taken place have been set to close this week, and in particular this day – June 30th.

There is still a great deal of misinformation about the HST. I had a client ask me just this week who purchased a resale home that is closing in September if they would have to pay HST in addition to the sale price! Can you imagine-adding a surprise 13% to the purchase price of a home! Of course HST does not apply to the sale price of a resale home whatsoever, I reassured my client but it goes to show that the general public does not know how this HST will be affecting them. I suppose like anything, you have to live with it for a while before you can tell what it feels like.

We’ve been hearing about it for months, that there would be a rush to get in before the HST, and it has definitely played out this way. I suspect many lawyers will be taking next week off as just about no one will be doing any closings this week.Now the question is, what happens next? Will the market drop off in July? Probably not. Buyers will keep buying and sellers will keep selling. Questions or comments? Contact me.