Ontario might be suffering from a shortage of rain, but there was certainly no drought of buyers when it came to home sales in Toronto.
July saw almost 7,000 transactions, up 18% over last July and prices rose 4.6% July 2018 over July 2017 and the average price now stands at $788,822.
At Re/Max Realtron, our sales were up 19% and we sold 941 homes from our inventory of 1543.
You are probably wondering where the discrepancy is. Some real estate agents believe the market is slow, while others, like myself, are saying the market is good. What’s going on?
Without being facetious, it has to do with company and experience. Those agents who are complaining have never experienced a normal, balanced real estate market. A balanced market is where there is a good supply of homes for a buyer to choose from (4-6 for every sale) and prices are relatively stable, selling at or close to market value. The statistics show that so far this year, the average home in Toronto sold for 99% of asking price within 21 days. In York region its 96% in 31 days and in Durham its 98% in 24 days. So as you can see, a home when priced according to market value, that’s properly marketed and promoted, should sell within 30 days.
Company also makes a big difference. Re/Max is huge in marketing, getting over 2,000,000 hits a month on our .ca website alone, not counting our RE/Max global website which is available in 48 different languages. That’s the kind of marketing power you need today to get a home sold.
So if the agent you are talking to says the market is bad or slow, get a second opinion. A balanced market is the best time to buy and sell, as prices are stable and you are not under time pressure to buy. Condominiums also are still a great buy and easy to rent due to the low vacancy rate.
If you have any questions, or know of someone thinking of buying or selling, please let me know, I would love to help.