January Real Estate Market Activity in the GTA was as it has been since June - significantly better than the year before but in line with prior years and the long term trend.
1. Market Activity ( = Number of Transactions)
Newspaper headlines tend to focus on numbers that make for a good story - it's always useful to read the whole article. Case in Point: There were 2,670 transactions January 2009 compared to 4,986 in 2010. That is a big jump. But we were in a full blown recession last year so depressed real estate activity would be expected. Compare that to January 2008 or 2007 and you can see we are more in line with those levels (5,075 and 5,173 transactions respectively). So yes we blew away Jan 2009 but we are not out of step with years prior.
2. Prices
The same goes for prices in January which ended with an average home selling price in the GTA of $409,058. Compared to a year ago ($343,632) when the market was way down prices were up 19%. But again if you go back to 2008 ($374,449), we are up 9.2% which would be in line with this historical price appreciation average of about 4% per year (9.2% over two years is roughly 4.5% per year).
What does all this mean? Sellers who price their property appropriately are doing well AND patience and smarts are required for buyers ready to take advantage of the low interest rates.
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/realestate/article/760287--existing-home-sales-soar-87-in-crazy-january
