Supply and Demand

We are in the middle of a mini-bull market in the resale property market downtown. When TREB released their mid-month statistics last week, many people were surprised that they showed for the first time in a year that prices and sales were actually higher for the city of Toronto than they were a year before.ÂÂÂ

Realtors all over the city have known for weeks that a significant change in the market had taken place. After months of growing inventory and stagnant demand, suddenly buyers were everywhere, and now that the dust is starting to settle, there’s no inventory left!

If you are thinking of selling, please do! We need the inventory. I’ve got several clients who are just waiting for the right property to come up. They are ready to buy now, but there is a major shortage of (good) inventory right now. As a result, just about every property that comes up that is priced well and shows well has been receiving multiple offers and bidding wars.

Looking closer at just downtown condos:

• In C01 (downtown west), April saw 290 sales versus 271 in April 2008. Average prices are $329K versus $346K last year. So sales are up 7% but prices are still down about 5% for April.ÂÂÂ
• In C08 (downtown east), April sales were 125 versus 84 in ’08. Average prices were $319K versus $355K last year. That translates into a 48% increase in sales and a 10% drop in prices.

The trend that is developing means that I expect sale prices for the month of May (when they come out in a couple weeks) to be close to equal with that of 2008 prices and the number of sales will probably still be about 5-10% over last years numbers.

Is this just a spring boost? Or will this trend continue through the summer and fall? More thoughts on this in a couple weeks once I see the May numbers.

Questions? Comments? You know what to do.