February 5, 2013 — Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 4,375 transactions through the TorontoMLS system in January 2013. This number represented a slight decline compared to 4,432 transactions reported in January 2012.

“The January sales figures represent a good start to 2013. While the number of transactions was down slightly compared to last year, the rate of decline was much less than what was experienced in the second half of 2012. This suggests that some buyers, who put their decision to purchase on hold last year due to stricter mortgage lending guidelines, are once again becoming active in the market,” said Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) President Ann Hannah.

“It is interesting to note that sales were up for many home types in the GTA regions surrounding the City of Toronto. This is due, at least in part, to the additional upfront land transfer tax in the City of Toronto,” added Ms. Hannah.

The average selling price for January 2013 sales was $482,648 – up by 4.3 per cent compared to $462,655 in January 2012. The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark price was up by 3.8 per cent over the same period.

“There will be enough competition between buyers in the marketplace to prompt continued growth in home prices in 2013. Expect annual average price growth in the three to five per cent range this year,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.

Year Over Year Sales Summary GTA

                                              2013                             2012                 % Chg.

Sales                                      4375                                 4432                 -1.30 %

New Listings                         10624                               9598                  10.70 %

Active Listings                      14231                                12290               15.80 %

Avg. Price                             $482,648                         $462,655           4.30 %

Avg. DOM                               37                                     32                     12.90 %

Downtown/Midtown Sales Statistics

Month of December  2012**

                                                Dec/12                      Jan/13

Properties Listed                      1181                               1271

Property Sales                           213                                 229

Avg. Price                                   $768,642                      $694,373

Median Price                             $546,083                      $528,333

** area bounded by Yonge-Ossington-Lakeshore-Eglinton

February 3, 2013-Toronto. The media would have you believe that the sky is falling and the market is crashing. My gut told me this was not the case in Downtown and Midtown Toronto for the month of January 2013. The FreemanTeam®, over 30 professional Realtors have a significant number of qualified buyers ready to buy now. Our predicament is there is  almost no  inventory. The “shop talk”  centers  around frustration…low inventory, multiple offers and the like. I decided to validate this in 8 several  keys communities of central downtown/midtown for the month of January 2013.

Eight popular  communities were carefully examined  in January for the percentage of active homes sold, sold percentage of asking price and   Days on Market. We found a market that lacks inventory,  where  almost 33%  of active listing sold on average for full list price (see chart above: Average 8 communities 100.28% & 32.80%).  The winners were Humewood/Cedarvale, Wychwood and Little Italy. All three of these desirable communities provided a range of well priced inventory in the $600K-$1000K range. The looser was the Annex with only 15% of active listings selling in January at 98.50% of list price. In the Annex a  lack of attractive inventory has been part of the problem.  Demand from buyers exists!!!

It is also interesting to note that the average number of days required to sell a property in all eight communities was a very strong 25.25 days. This compares favorably to the heady spring days of 2012.

January 2013

So what does the spring hold for many of these communities. If inventory levels remain low it is probable that we will see multiple offer situations popping up  especially  in the popular $600-$800k range.  What we need is more inventory in the affordable range coming up which will hopefully trickle up and jump start the  more moribund +$1000k range.

If you are looking for up-to-date monthly Real Estate stats, and evaluation of your property  and the ability to search all of the GTA’s available listings at the click of the button check out the MOST USER FRIENDLY & ADVANCED Real Estate web site at www.freemanrealty.com

There was the mother who rented an apartment so her daughter would be in district for popular Earl Haig Secondary School near Yonge and Sheppard.

Never mind that the flat was empty and the mother had no intention of living there; she told the principal it was cheaper to pay rent to get into Earl Haig than to pay tuition for a private school.

Then there were 15 applications for Grade 9 one year all from the same apartment unit. An apartment superintendent was selling false leases, recalled Michael Smith, principal at the time. We shut that down.

At this time of year, as Grade 8 students apply for high school, families can get creative in trying to get their children into schools they believe are best. In a system that gives first dibs to children who live in the district, schools with good buzz can drive out-of-district families to desperate measures.

“Recently the Bank of Canada (BoC) met and, as expected, left its target overnight rate unchanged.  More surprisingly though, the bank also eliminated its oft-repeated warning about near-term rate increases. Here is the exact wording from the announcement:

While some modest withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will likely be required over time, consistent with achieving a two per cent inflation target, the more muted inflation outlook and the beginnings of a more constructive evolution of the imbalances in the housing sector suggest that the timing of any such withdrawal is less imminent than previously anticipated.”

-David Larock

Remonline.com

The percentage of unsold condominiums in Toronto™s housing market continues to rise but the market remains strong by historical standards, according to a new survey.

Urbanation Inc., one of the leading research companies in the condo industry, said overall the Toronto census metropolitan area was 79% sold in the fourth quarter of 2012, down from 80% a quarter earlier and 82% a year earlier. It is above the 10-year average of 78%.

Despite concerns over the level of unsold supply in the new condominium market, the ratio of sold to unsold units has consistently been above the long-run average in recent years, said Ben Myers, executive vice president of Urbanation, in a release. There remains confusion over unsold supply and standing inventory, to clarify, at the end of Q4-2012 there were just 613 completed and unsold new condominium apartment suites in the Toronto CMA ” some would be rented out by the developer, some used for construction offices, and others used as model suites for subsequent phases, effectively lowering this standing inventory figure even farther.

-Garry Marr, Financial Post

@DustyWallet