Benchmark Real Estate Strategy

August is a depressed month. The entire summer season is a depressed market in the GTA.

This fact won’t stop the media from their typical/planned September headline “Toronto Home Prices Dropped X% Last Month”. It will be misleading, as it always is but it catches attention.

To those in the know, August is our calm before the storm that starts right after labour day and ends somewhere in the middle-to-end of November (our fall market: the second largest season for volume).

What you should know:

Overall, all the areas I cover here are still in a sellers market, although Oakville and South Etobicoke seem to be inching towards an eventual more balanced market status.

Pent-up demand and existing supply aside, the volume of new listings and new buyers coming to market in the next few weeks will be the key factor in determining where prices go for the rest of the year.

What do you think is going to happen?
Will inventory rise without being met by equal or superior demand? (leading to either a balanced or buyers market)
OR
Will the ranks of buyers grow, emboldened by the recent BoC announcement, to the point of outmatching existing and upcoming inventory? (leading even deeper into sellers market territory)
OR
Something else altogether?

Comment below what you think! None has a crystal ball so there are no wrong answers… only wrong people! Joking…

Here comes the Fall market 🍂

In Toronto real estate, we usually have two major seasons: Spring and Fall. Our Fall market starts right after the labour day weekend with an influx of inventory from property owners who patiently waited for buyers to come back from their summer activities/retreats.

It’s often a surprise to outsiders and even to some locals that the Summer market is a slow one. We have such a short summer to enjoy in Toronto that we aim to make the most of it and that rarely entails hunting for some hot real estate.

Many buyers also were on the sidelines waiting for the Bank of Canada rate announcement (yesterday’s story). Now that we know the rate is holding steady, these buyers have the opportunity to find their new place or investment during the Fall market and lock in a fixed-rate for their mortgage before the next BoC announcement on October 25.

Ready? Set – Go! 🏁

Happy Hunting everyone

Time flies... 10 years ago I was negotiating for a hot corner loft in the WQW neighbourhood. You wouldn't believe the price it was... and people were thinking it was expensive back then.

Decisions… here, we were selecting the right shade of cabinet door finish for a bathroom closet.

If you’re not involved in the design decisions, shortcuts will naturally happen and the optimal finishes you were hoping for won’t magically manifest themselves. Worse, you might end up with a quick cut and paste from a completely different project getting force-fitted into yours. I see it happen all the time!

If you don’t have an eye for it, get a friend to drop in at the meeting(s) with you. Or in the case of a sale, make sure you select an agent with the proven ability to handle such situations.

Providing feedback to a designer without falling into the micromanaging trap (and “playing designer” ourselves) takes tact and know-how. I’ve worked with many designers and creative teams over the years, like in any industry, none’s perfect but it’s about finding the right fit in creativity, design styles that designer is comfortable working with and communication.

I’m curious to know what were the hardest challenges you encountered the last time you prepared a property for sale. What do you think could have been done better?