Toronto Real Estate Prices for December 2008

Here is my monthly Toronto real estate statistics review for the month of December 2008. The level of activity, or volume of sales was very low for the month of December. This is not really very surprising. Consumer confidence in the whole economy is down and people are holding-off making major purchases, with a home being the most major of them all! At the same time, December is traditionally the slowest month of the year for real estate sales. However, this year was still significantly below the level of last year.

On the pricing side, the average prices across the GTA declined by 1.9% from the month before. This is always a tricky number to nail down, given the fluctuations in the price ranges of homes being sold. More or less high-end homes can really skew this number. However a 1.9% price decline is probably fairly accurate read on the market place. This also puts us 9.2% below the market peak of May 2008.

So what does all this mean? Well we are firmly into a buyer's market. This is the time to be buying. There are lots of homes on the market to choose from, less competition from other buyers, more motivated sellers, great prices, super-low interest rates and a keen willingness from the banks to extend mortgages to people with jobs. For home sellers, there are good opportunities to sell a home so long as it is in the best condition and priced to the market. We are not seeing the multiple offer frenzy of a couple of years ago. Now any offer not matter how low is appreciated by home sellers.

Here is my monthly chart...



Be sure to check out my previous post, the 2008 annual review too!

Buying, selling investing - Ralph is here to help!
www.RealEstateHelpDesk.ca
Call me at 416 577-5486 or contact me at ralph@RealEstateHelpDesk.ca