It's very rare to see prices continue to climb into December like they did in 2016. Typically, prices peak during September/October and relax a little in December. It was caused by a shortage of condos available for sale. So what's happened is the opposite most expected about the construction boom of new condos going up in Toronto. Most people thought they were building too many condos and that would lead to a price crash. What we've actually seen is that there aren't enough condos available for sale to satisfy the demand and prices are rising.

The median price of a condo in December was down a little from $485,000 in December to $460,400 in January. The story about that price change isn't the drop in January but how strong December was. The year over year price increase of condos in the downtown district was 15.6%.

Most January's have about 900 suites for sale. This January we had only 345 available for sale, so the inventory was almost 1/3rd of what we typically see. This is the real story behind all the other statistics, it's the low supply. Despite all the new projects and so many units being held as investments, few people are selling.

Typically, about 200 condos sell in an average January. This January, 302 condos sold showing the healthy demand from Buyers.

Downtown condos remain in a strong Seller's Market. As long as we're in a Seller's Market, we have to expect the price trend to continue upwards. Think condo prices have risen significantly over the last 5 years? Not when compared to detached housing prices. Over the last 5 years, a detached house has risen about 74% whereas a condo has risen 27%. If we were to enter a correction, do you think houses or condos would have a larger drop?

We expect to see some relief to the condo inventory in the coming months as the Spring market continues but I don't expect to see lower prices. Will it be enough new inventory to keep prices from rising even further... probably not.