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Canadian Real Estate is Boring

A client of mine forwarded this very cool interactive flash-based chart from The Economist. It shows the house price index, actual house price movement for several countries over the past 20 years.  (The above is just an image of the actual chart. I have embedded the actual flash chart in my blog. Click ‘Continue Reading’ to try it.)

It is interesting to see how Canada’s house prices stack up against other countries over the last 20 years. The same old story holds true: since 1990, Canadian real estate has been very boring. Appreciating at very modest but steady rates compare to the huge ups and downs of several other countries. Our downturn we experienced last year was nothing compared to other countries. This is disappointing news to the doomsayers who fervently believe we are constantly heading for a massive market ‘correction’.

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History In The Making?

The Toronto real estate market has undergone such a massive turnaround over the past 3 months I wouldn’t doubt that we will look back on this as an historic event. I’m not saying things will forever be blue skies and sunshine for Toronto real estate investors and home owners, but its clear that in the past 12 months we have witnessed 2 seismic shifts. The first happened in October 2008 when the market began to free fall, and then the second occurred around May 1st when buyers came out of the woodwork in droves and ate up every available listing in sight, sending prices sky rocketing.

I’ve been talking a lot lately about supply and demand on this blog. The figures are staggering over the past few months. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the analysts and economists to explain what has happened in this city over this relatively short period of time.

Rather than try to add more words to the discussion, I found a great visual display over at guava.ca that illustrates what I’ve been talking about. Take a look through the charts found on this great site and see how the last 12 months compares to activity over the past 5 years. Look at the “V” shape for the total months of inventory. Very revealing.

chart from guava.ca

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Signs of Life? February Condo Market Stats Have a Pulse

It’s that time of the month again, TREB just released their stats for February. The numbers aren’t as painful to look at as in the previous few months, but does this mean we are on the way to recovery?

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New Condo Sales Still Down; Prices Still Up

[**CHART REMOVED DUE TO COPYRIGHT CLAIM BY REALNET CANADA INC.**]

Realnet has released the sales figures for new condos for the month of January. Prices are still increasing despite the fact that the number of sales continues to be significantly lower than a year ago.

Prices are up 8% for high rise condos while sales were down 64% compared to January 2008. 

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2009 Begins As a Buyer’s Market

TREB has their January stats up for resale properties. Looking at the numbers for downtown condos it is now very clear: we are in a serious buyer’s market. 

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Price of New Condos Holding Strong Despite Plummeting Sales

[**CHART REMOVED DUE TO COPYRIGHT CLAIM BY REALNET CANADA INC.**]

The final sales figures for new condos from Realnet are in for the December and the year 2008. In short, prices are still going up, while sales have dropped off significantly. [Note: these numbers are for new condos. For resale condos, see my previous posts for more stats on the downtown condo market.] (more…)

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Sales Down. Prices Down. Inventory Up & Down?

Finally the numbers are in. TREB took a lot longer than usual to release the final sales numbers for the month of December, maybe because they were so painful to look at they had to double check them several times, hoping they would magically improve themselves. Here are all the gory details.

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Tipping Point? Downtown Condo Prices Fall, Inventory Soars

The numbers are in for November and it isn’t pretty.  TREB just released their sales figures for the month of November and unlike last month, we can now say that for the resale downtown condo market, prices have fallen.  Let’s just get right into the numbers.

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Is the Toronto Condo Market Crashing?

We are in the midst of a global financial crisis. People are naturally concerned about their jobs, their finances, their investments, and of course – REAL ESTATE. I am getting asked constantly by friends, family, and clients:

How is the market? Are prices coming down? Is the Condo Market Crashing?

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