A sold sign is displayed in front of a house in the Riverdale area of Toronto, on Sept. 29, 2021.Momentum from October’s revival in the Toronto-area real estate market has carried into November, industry players say, as buyers return to property searches long placed on hold.
Already, the rush of new listings has slowed, he adds. .Buyers may lose some enthusiasm as they see fewer new offerings arrive on the market.Leah Zlatkin, a mortgage broker who provides expertise for LowestRates.ca, says her business is more hectic this month than last as deals close and buyers sign new agreements of purchase and sale.But she is also wondering if the market will give in to a seasonal slowdown. Conditions may be right for a spurt of sales between mid-December and early January.
If the policy goes ahead as planned, purchasers will be able to buy in the range between $1-million and $1.5-million without the need for a 20 per cent down payment. That could open up options for first-time buyers in that range, she says. Daren King, economist with National Bank of Canada, notes that inventory in the Greater Toronto Area contracted in October for the first time in seven months. He estimates that active listings shrank by 1.2 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis from September but remain elevated compared with historical norms.
Real estate prices have remained nearly flat during that time. Last month, the average price in the Greater Toronto Area stood at $1,135,215, compared with 1,123,390 in October of last year.“The rates have started to trend down but the prices have not yet trended up,” Mr. Parekh notes. For those buyers, the interest rate cuts didn’t affect their financing but did provide a psychological boost for consumers in general, Mr. Parekh says. The buyers also watched competition diminish and prices soften in the suburban 905 region.
Sellers who set an asking price too high figuring they can reduce it later often see that optimism backfire, he says.