Given everything that’s going on right now — like, you know, a deadly pandemic and consequent global economic fallout — buying a new home isn’t really a top priority for most people.
Though experts say COVID-19 won’t have a long-term effect on housing markets in Canada, things like job loss, financial precarity, general uncertainty, and a lack of tools that the real estate market relies on (like open houses) mean that buyers are understandably more hesitant than usual and may be willing to put shopping for a house off for the foreseeable future.
Re-Post: Here’s the Real Estate 411!! Take a breather the market is full of risk right now. Only dire need(real dire need) sell or buy should be considered right now. We should not be transacting & putting others at risk.
— Mark Allen, ABR ®, SRS (@MarkTORealtor) April 18, 2020
Toronto’s housing market stats for March were a mixed bag, averaging out better than March of last year, but Toronto property sales have fallen drastically ever since — April’s home sales so far are only 16 per cent of what they were last month, and we are nearly two-thirds of the way through.
But, as realtor Gord Collins notes, “everyone knows demand is there, which keeps prices from dropping too much.”
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said that home sales in the GTA were up 12.3 per cent last month compared to March 2019, but that there was “a clear break in market activity” after the 2019 novel coronavirus crisis began mid-month.
While sales in the city skyrocketed in the first half of March 2020 — up nearly 50 per cent from the same time last year — they dropped down a staggering 15.9 per cent from March 2019 in the second half of the month.
The early-month sales ended up accounting for 58 per cent of all homebuying transactions in March 2020.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s latest market video summarizes March’s Market Watch Report in less than 4 minutes. Watch video here:https://t.co/T1T7Y9B8VY
— Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (@TheReal_TRREB) April 16, 2020
New listings in the city were likewise significantly down in the second half of last month, though home prices were fairly unaffected and still higher than last year (but did drop, on average, $40,000 from the beginning on March to the end).
“Clearly, uncertainty surrounding the outbreak’s impact on the broader economy and the onset of the necessary social distancing measures resulting in declining sales and listings since March 15,” the board said.
Gord Collins echoes this, saying in his market forecast based on TREB figures that “we can predict these prices will drop much further as the full impact of growing unemployment and work shutdowns.”
A report from Toronto real estate brokerage Zolo similarly anticipates property prices will plummet.
Toronto real estate buyers bought almost 4,000 homes while in “self-isolation.”
Many real estate groups like Zoocasa and Royal LePage have speculated that despite a temporary hit due to COVID-19, the market will end up recovering later in the year, as ” the fundamentals of the housing market generally don’t change” in big cities such as Toronto.
Despite the fact that most young people in Toronto have come to terms with the fact that they will never be able to become homeowners, we’ll have to wait and see if low prime lending rates and COVID-19 pricing ends up bringing property ownership anywhere within our reach (if you’re even into that sort of thing).
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
