For the past few months and especially in June, most people when speaking about the Toronto Real Estate market were talking about the “drop in the market” or “it’s becoming a buyers market” or as two articles in the Globe and Mail stated “In Toronto, buyers gain the upper hand” and “In Ontario, real estate buyers are holding out for a price cut”.  Most of this conversation is based on the drop in market volume and price from its high of February and March where we were seeing +20% year-over-year price increases.  I am a golfer and this is like comparing your best golf round EVER as your new standard.  It doesn’t make sense.  May saw a 9.4% year-over-year increase in the TRREB area but people were still talking about “the drop”.

June was indicative of this trend.  Unit volume was down 41.4% from June 2021 but average sale prices were up 5.3% year-over-year.  A modest increase compared to February and March but still in the positive.  Not surprisingly, June 2022 sale prices were down 3% when looking at May this year.

Sellers (and buyers) will need to adjust expectations.  Greed by sellers won’t be as common and buyers will be able to find deals or at least better value out there.  This is good and reasonable.  I have been telling my clients for a long time that 8-10% price increases are a healthy “balanced” market which both buyers and sellers can understand and value, whereas 20% is not.  It isn’t sustainable nor is it healthy. As a result, June experienced a healthy market adjustment because of increasing interest rates and higher cost of living due to inflation.

As we move into the summer months we are entering into what is traditionally the slower season, especially now that COVID-life is largely behind us, as kids are out of school, families take time off, go away, or just have other things on their mind besides purchasing a home.  Come September when this changes, we expect the volume of homes sales and prices will continue to move up from 2020 and 2021 numbers.