March 2023: Hope Springs Eternal

Now that the long weekend has passed and the weather is beginning to turn for the better it is a sign we are officially into the Spring Real Estate Market. Historically an energetic period for real estate, it will be telling to see if April shows signs of the market warming up again after a long, dark winter. Unfortunately, as many could expect the numbers for March were down across the board as the mix of poor weather and uncertain financial markets (moving interest rates and U.S. bank stability concerns) provided enough reason for those looking to buy or sell to wait and see.

In March 2023 home prices in the GTA were down 14.6% for an average of $1,108,606, actually an improvement over February 2023 which was down 21.8%. To pile on top of that, compared to last year the number of sales was down 36.5%, the number of new listings down 44.3%, and the average days on market was over twice as long. We need to start seeing more quality listings come out to kickstart things!

I truly believe that now that the long weekend is behind us we will start to see the Spring market start up. It won’t be the crazy volume or prices we saw last year at its height, but we will see some stronger numbers both in sales and volume. There have already been signs of this with more robust sale prices in the luxury space and instances of bidding wars with 10+ offers in the mid-range market. The main difference compared to a few years ago is that properties are no longer guaranteed to sell over-asking, sight unseen. What is selling quickly for over-asking are high quality homes that don’t require major renos and are priced according to the market today, not the prices we were seeing last winter.

Furthermore, there has been lots of noise recently about interest rates and for good reason. Just three years ago it would have been almost unimaginable to see interest rates at 4.5% and mortgages over 6% when we’d grown accustomed to sub-2% credit for the last decade. However, it seems that buyers and sellers are starting to settle in to the new reality of higher rates, at least now that they seem to have stabilized, and are comfortable considering a purchase or sale without the fear of buying at the top or selling at the bottom.

This winter may not have been the sunniest period for Toronto real estate as everyone re-adjusted out of the pandemic but hope springs eternal and there is reason to be optimistic for where the housing market is headed this year. Now is a great time to buy if you can find the gems out there before we anticipate more listings come out next month and other buyers start to notice, and sellers need not wait to list but should be realistic about their expectations and not expect to get February 2022 prices.

Market Commentary by Joe Robert, Broker of Record & JR Robert, Sales Representative