In March I went on record saying 2021 would likely be the best year ever for real estate sales for the Toronto Real Estate Board. That is definitely the case. Even if sales stay flat for the rest of the year (stay at 2020 levels), 25% more homes will have sold over last year. What does that mean for you? It means Toronto is experiencing a very, very strong seller’s market and there has never been a better time to sell. There were a lot of doomsayers last year who predicted a housing meltdown in Spring 2021 because of Covid-19. Quite the opposite has happened. There is pent-up demand. People have realised that life goes on. People continue to marry, divorce, retire, upsize, and downsize. They took a pause last year in the first few months of Covid-19, but by the end of 2020, buyers and sellers came back in droves. Many realised they can work from anywhere, others realised that they needed more space with both spouses working from home, often with kids homeschooling. Others still, decided to cash in the condo for more green space. Being able to breathe in fresh air in the back garden was a feature that was suddenly desirable.
Normally, we look at monthly figures on a year over year basis. Since April 2020’s real estate market was devastated by Covid-19, comparing this year to last serves no practical purpose.
Prices have moderated a bit since last month, and that is a good thing. The number of Sales in the Greater Toronto Area was down 13% since March 2021 but was still a respectable 13,663, and the average selling price was down marginally at -0.60%.
New listings are down (-8% to 20,825) and the number of Days on Market is flat at an amazingly low 10 days.
In the City of Toronto, the average selling price came in marginally higher at $1,088,021which represents a half ofone percent increase over last month.
It is also worth noting that the higher end of the market ($2,000,000+) continues to be healthy, despite an 11% decrease in average selling price.
In April, condominium apartment sales were down 13%, but the average selling price was down only 2%.
The number of sales and average prices may be taking a healthy pause or may be signaling a slowing in the heated real estate market, but prices remain high, at least for now. How long this will last is anyone’s guess. Borders have been closed, so population growth is missing in the real estate data this year. If population growth is renewed and inventory levels continue to be low, prices should continue a moderate upward trend. In that case, we should expect single-digit growth going forward.
