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The last few months have not been kind to Buyers. In fact, it’s been hard not to draw a comparison between Toronto’s real estate market and the Hunger Games:
- Buyers = the Tributes
- Hot downtown neighbourhoods = The Districts
- The elusive detached house = the prize
- The media = the televised death matches
The May statistics speak for themselves:
- The average price of a detached home in Toronto surpassed $1,150,000;
- The average price of a semi-detached house in the central core (Beaches to High Park) came in at almost $900,000
- Even the condo market has been performing well, with prices up 8.2% in May (vs last year) and averaging more than $520,000 in the central core
We’ve seen months of fierce bidding wars, where $100,000 over-asking was expected and $200,000 over-asking was not unusual. At least the $400,000 and $700,000 over-asking still kept us talking. Heck even the ‘burbs have been getting Toronto-style bidding wars.
I pulled up the % of Asking Price stats for houses from Jan-May 2015 in the central core to see just how painful 2015 has been:
- C1 – 107% of asking price
- C8 – 100% of asking price
- E1 – 110% of asking price
- E2 – 109% of asking price
- W1 – 108% of asking price
- W2 – 108% of asking price
(if you don’t know where those districts are, check out the map here).
While low inventory and pent-up demand aren’t unusual at this time of year, 2015 does seem busier than usual.
Not-so-humble-brag: the BREL team just did their 90th transaction of 2015 yesterday!
We always think of the weeks after the May long weekend as Spring Market #2. After a long cold winter, Sellers finally decide to list their houses for sale and the Buyers are ready.
I like to think of Spring Market #2 as the Rebellion against the Capitol:
- Tired of losing bidding wars, Buyers begin to take matters into their own hands via the bully offer. The last 2 weeks have seen unprecedented bully offers (a Bully Offer is an aggressive offer before the Sellers’ ‘bidding war date’, in an attempt to circumvent a bidding war).
- Armed with the belief that $100,000 (or $200,000) over-asking is the new normal, Buyers begin to ignore the good houses, fearful of bidding wars they can’t win. Over the last few weeks, we’ve watched more than a few great houses not get ANY offers on ‘bidding war date’ as Buyers waited on the sidelines to see what would happen. Smart Buyers (and their smart agents) stayed the course and swooped in and got some great deals.
- Exhausted from months of searching, some Buyers have chosen to take a break – these are inevitably the same Buyers who will be ready to re-start the search in September when things are crazy again. Pro tip: don’t give up now! There’s finally some inventory on the market and it’s prime buying time.
To all the Buyers out there: May the odds be forever in your favour. the BREL team is here to help.
