Prices, too, have come under pressure. The composite benchmark price for a home in the Greater Toronto Area peaked at $1,370,000 in March of 2022, according to figures from TRREB, but as of February were down 18 per cent from there. Vancouver’s price decline has been steeper, according to the region’s real estate board, off 20 per cent from a high of $1,374,500 last April.
“We need to not just see a seasonal increase , but we need to see a big increase in the number of people coming on the market to sell — and we don’t know if that’s going to happen, to be honest with you,” Pasalis said. “We’ll probably see some increase but I’m not sure if we’re going to see the level we need to bring a bit more balance to the market. And by balance, I mean, fewer bidding wars, homes sitting on the market a little bit longer.
“If a realtor is representing a buyer in this market, they’re definitely feeling the pressure of even finding homes that are suitable,” Parekh said. “And when they finally do find a property — and I’m talking more so houses than condos in this specific example — there are so many other buyers that are looking at that same home.”Article content
“It was a market where properties were selling quickly and selling for high prices,” he said. “Part-timers doing lower volume sales or staying afloat based on the reality that there was a lot of business to go around, were selling properties relatively easily.”Then, the market was buzzing from the Bank of Canada’s emergency interest rate cuts, sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The overnight rate sat at 0.25 per cent for all of 2021. A previously hot market seemingly got hotter that year.