Black and Black Toronto Real Estate Market News - March 8th, 2010

The statistics for the month of February exceeded all predictions and records have been created in a variety of areas. This was the strongest February in the history of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). It even beat out February of 2007. The 1st record involves Days On Market. Every property sold within 22 days for the entire trading area. February 2009 saw 45 days as the average days on market. The 2nd record involves Total Properties Sold. 7,291 properties were sold in February, compared to only 6,800 in 2007. New listings totalled 12,726 in February, which is a 24% increase from February '09. Active listings are well below normal, coming in at 14,514 for February (a normal balanced market would see 20,000-23,000 active listings). Therefore, it will be a Seller's market continuing through the month of March. The 3rd record involves the Number of Properties Sold Over $1 Million. 261 properties sold over $1 million in February, compared to only 75 last February.

Districts:

East:

E01 was the hottest district in February with every property selling within 11 days. The average sale to list ratio in E01 was 107%. The average sale to list ratio in all of the East was 100% and the average days on market was 24. The average sale price for the East was $326,000, with the average for E01 at $503,000. The number of listings are down 30% from this time last year.

West:

W01 averaged 14 days on market, with sales to list ratio at 104%. Sales increased 79% from this time last year, and new listings were up 22%.

North:

North averaged 25 days on market, with an 18% increase in the average sale price of $464,000. Sales were up 86% from February '09 and new listings were up 16%.

Central:

Every district in Central saw a record sales to list ratio of 100% or higher, except for C12. In C09, the average sale price reached $1,432,000. The average days on market for all of Central was 18 days (C10 - 15 days, C04 - 15 days, C09 - 14 days, C10 - 15 days). The average sale price reached $566,000, up 20% from last February's $473,000. This was the highest increase in sale price out of any of the districts. In C09, there were 33 sales in February, and 38 sales for C12 (average sale price of $1,328,000). Total reported sales in Central were 1,395 in February, compared to only 739 sales last February. Going into March there are 2,467 active listings.

Another record worth mentioning is Average Sale Price. The average sale price for all of TREB was $431,509. The closest to that number was $423,559 reached back on October 2009.

There were 6,171 sales last year for March 2009. It is predicted that we could see upwards of 9,000 properties sold for March 2010.

Interest Rates: Rates will be going up 10-15 basis points tonight at some banks. It is being predicted that interest rates will be going up in the 2nd half of 2010. This will cause the frenzy that is currently in play to be heightened. In addition, the HST will play a role in that buyers will want to speed up their purchases in hopes of avoiding the HST which will hit July 1st of this year.

CREA Confidence Survey: At the end of January, CREA conducted a confidence survey and results show that the index of confidence increased by 13%. This represents the highest level of consumer confidence in 23 months. People do see the light at the end of the recession tunnel.

Quick GTA Real Estate News for the week of January 18th, 2010 - Courtesty of Leslie Black and Catherine M. Black

Talks of housing bubble in Canada are premature. The Bank of Canada does not feel that Canada is currently at risk of a housing bubble.  "It is likely...that a significant part of the surge inhousing sector activity is associated with temporary factors - notably the historically low borrowing costs, as well as pent-up and pulled-forward demand - which cannot continue to drive increases in house prices and activity. Thus, we see the housing market as requiring vigilance, but not alarm."  Read more from the National Post.

The main cause of the housing bubble in the U.S. has been the qualifying process for mortgages.  Many lenders simply did not qualify buyers and most loans were securitized (most people didn't know they were signing up for a securitized loan).  Other causes for the housing bubble can be attributed to the explosion of exotic mortgages and money coming in from out of the country. Many mortgages were approved even when borrowers had no income, no jobs, no assets (known as "NINJA" mortgages). This clearly has not been the case in Canada.