The sales statistics for the month of May are in from the Toronto Real Estate Board for the resale market. As usual, I am only concerned with looking at the downtown condo sales as the stats for a metro area of 5 million people tells us nothing really about the downtown condo market.
My observations for this month’s stats:
- Most interesting to me as always is the inventory level. There were 183 fewer condos available for sale downtown in May versus last year, or about 11% less inventory. Low levels of inventory is a constant problem in this city. Those who keep harping on about ‘they are building too many condos!’…obviously don’t read my blog.
- Prices are up marginally versus last year (both average and median prices)
- Sales:Active ratio is about 38% for downtown total, which statistically indicates a ‘balanced’ market (as usually defined by about 25-40% Sales:Active ratio). This may explain partially why some listings sell with multiple offers while others sit for 3 weeks or more without an offer.
Takeaways:
Buyers – You still need to act quickly and be ready to engage in a bidding war for the best listings. I don’t see this changing much over the next 3 months.
Sellers – If you price your property right and prepare your property for sale correctly, you can still acheive great results, but it’s no longer a market where you can just throw anything out there and expect it to sell for top dollar in a week or less.
Investors – Watch for those properties that have ‘slipped through the cracks’ with DOM (days on market) over 20. These sellers may start to believe their Realtors who tell them ‘the market must be changing!’ and you may be able to get some leeway with sellers.
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