It used to be easier to write these. Especially at this time of year, during the spring market. Supply was sparse. Demand was strong. Multiple offers were rampant. Prices were increasing. Boom. There it was. Rinse and repeat. The same thing month after month and year after year.

That’s not the way things are this year. Not to say the market is in the doldrums because it’s not. It’s not a hot market and it’s not a dead market. I’d call it a balanced market. It reminds me a little of how the market was in the early to mid 1990s.

Back then you’d list your detached house at Yonge and Lawrence for about $278,000. The same house you’d list today for $1.9m. You’d never list it intentionally low to try for a bidding war back then. No one would pay more than list price. You’d expect to get a few showings the first week. Then you’d get weeks with one or two showings and weeks with no showings. Your home usually wouldn’t sell quickly so you wouldn’t get upset when it didn’t sell in a week or two. In fact, you’d be prepared for it to sell in about sixty days, sometimes more, sometimes less. Your agent would tell you it would likely sell in the range of $272,000 to $274,000. Yes, we could be that precise back then. The best list price would’ve been $276,000, but you went with $278,000 in case there was a buyer willing to pay a premium price of $275,000 or $276,000. If your house didn’t sell in thirty days, you’d talk to your agent about reducing the list price by $2,000 to $276,000. Eventually your house would sell in the $272,000 to $274,000 range. And that’s when you’d start looking for your next house because no one bought first. You couldn’t risk doing that because you never knew how long it would take for your home to sell. 

Back then buyers would take their time. They didn’t have to make quick decisions. They might go back and look at a home more than once over a period of a few weeks or a month. They’d offer below list price. They’d ask for their closing date of preference. There would be true negotiations over a lot of terms of the offer. 

Today’s market isn’t quite like that. It’s better. And I’m not just referring to how much prices have increased. It’s stronger. There’s more demand than there was back then. Homes are selling quicker. Today you’d list your house at $1.9m thinking it’s worth between $1.75m and $1.85m because you’d want to leave a little room to negotiate. Most buyers want to negotiate. Or you’d list it at $1.7m and hold off on offers, hoping for a bidding war. If you got one, great. But that’s not happening very often. So if you didn’t get one, you’d increase the list price to $1.9m. You’d get a showing or two most days for the first week or two. Then it would slow down to a few showings every week. If your home didn’t sell in the first week or two, you’d get nervous. You’d still remember the hot spring markets of yesteryear and that’s where your expectations were at even though you knew the market had changed. You might decide to lower the list price, especially if you already bought your next house. (Many people are still buying first.)  Either way, if your home was priced in the ballpark, you’d be likely to receive a decent offer and sell your home in about thirty days, sometimes more and sometimes less, and your home would sell in the $1.75m to $1.85m range. Yes, we have to be that imprecise these days. Prices are all over the place.  Or you may be the kind of seller who didn’t care at all if your house sold and you’d list it at $2.2m because that’s what you could’ve gotten at the peak. And your house would probably sit there and not sell.

Most buyers are taking their time these days. Unless they see a home they absolutely love that they think is well priced. Then they know to jump because bidding wars are still possible. But in most cases buyers aren’t making quick decisions and aren’t offering more than list price. They’re negotiating. Some buyers think the market has tanked and are offering $1.5m for homes listed at $1.9m that are worth between $1.75m and $1.85m. It’s highly unlikely a seller will be willing to sell for that price. Very few sellers are that desperate. And very few buyers of this type are successful. Like I said earlier, the market is balanced.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market right now about what will happen in the world, to our economy and in the real estate market. When times are uncertain, some people hold off making big decisions. But the underlying feeling I get is that as soon as people start to feel the world isn’t going to crumble and the market isn’t going to crash, the market will take off. So is it a good time to buy? I think so. But only if it’s the right time in your life. Is it a good time to sell? I think so, but again, only if the timing works for you. 

It’s a tricky market and it’s easy to make mistakes in tricky markets. Give us a call to make sure that doesn’t happen to you. 

If you’d like to check out the numbers, take a look at the charts below.

Central Toronto – Market Overview

Prices – John Wanless and Bedford Park Public School Neighbourhoods

There are five typical home styles in the neighbourhood north of Lawrence, east of Avenue Road, west of Mount Pleasant Road and south of Old Orchard Grove and Snowdon Avenue. Each typical home style is shown on the chart below. Please remember that factors such as house size, lot size and dimensions, condition and location, amongst others, affect selling prices.

Prices – John Ross Robertson, Lytton Park, Lawrence Park and Cricket Club Areas

JOHN ROSS ROBERTSON – Chudleigh Ave., Cheritan Ave., Chatsworth Dr., Glenview Ave., Glengrove Ave. W., Glencairn Ave.

LYTTON PARK – east and west of Avenue Road: Alexandra Blvd., Lytton Blvd., Strathallan Blvd., Cortleigh Blvd., Hillhurst Blvd. (almost all of these homes are on 50 foot wide lots)

LAWRENCE PARK – between Yonge St., Bayview Ave., Lawrence Ave. E., and Blythwood Rd. (almost all of these homes are on 50 foot wide lots)

CRICKET CLUB – between Avenue Rd., Yonge St., Wilson Ave., and Brooke Ave.