Listings are now at an all time high of 8800, and prices are slowly moving downward. This is NOT an indicator of house values falling, only that the stress test has affected more buyers' bottom lines than previously anticipated. People are buying less expensive houses; at least the people who are buying.
Pockets of over million dollar houses are selling in popular inner city and newer south west communities. Those buyers seem to be taking advantage of low prices on the high end homes. New builds in the inner city are selling at near 2014 levels because, while many are still under construction, very few are available for possession in the spring/summer market. New homes in the outskirts are seeing very modest sales.
Condos and townhouses are still struggling. New listings are slowly diminishing but there is still a glut of more than 4000 on the market, mostly holdovers from 2017. Sale prices have been a staggering 32% less than this time last year.
While oil pushes upward and unemployment pushes downward, one would think it's only a matter of time before consumer confidence is restored. With the apparent corrections happening in Toronto/Vancouver and Ontario in general, it seems that confidence is being challenged by outside forces.
This will likely be a sluggish summer, which bodes well for buyers, followed (hopefully) by some activity in the fall. Another interest rate is pending which might motivate some buyers to get off the fence.
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