By Chris Dawson & Elizabeth Machula May 12, 2018

Bidding Wars Resume

Here are the statistics for the last month:

Over the last 5 years, the average number of condos on the market for sale in April has been 1187. This past April we had only 485, available inventory is still less than half as typical.

Over the last 5 years, the average number of condos on the market that sold in April has been 462. This past April we had 423 sales... demand is a little bit less than typical.

The ratio of condo Supply vs Demand is still far higher than usual. This is not caused by high demand... it's caused by low supply. The level of demand is typical, the market is still starving for inventory.

The median price of a downtown condo was up a little from $585,500 in March to $592,000 in April.

In April, the average price of a detached home was noticeably up from $1,293,903 to $1,354,719. Since January 2017, home prices have just crossed the break-even line and are now up 1.4%. Condos continue their rise and are now up 28.6%.

Although since 2017, condos have vastly outperformed detached housing downtown the above graph looks at the longer term picture and tells a different story. Since 2005, detached homes are up 317% vs 238% for Condos. Perhaps condo prices have just been playing 'catch up' and the recent increases will prove to be sustainable. 
Working in the market, we're finding most properties under $2.5m are holding back offers for bidding wars. Our experience is that both homes and condos are getting about 3-4 offers on average. During the mad rush in March 2017 we were seeing homes in desirable pockets average 10 offers or more. This Spring is much calmer than 2017 but I think that will also bring less volatility than we saw last year. The best thing for Toronto real estate in the long term would be to have a very flat and boring 2018. 

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