Toronto’s real estate market continues to be...

Toronto’s real estate market continues to be characterized as “tight” by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). 

TRREB’s March 2023 Market Watch shows active listings down for the first time in several months and new listings down an astounding 44.3 per cent year-over-year; it’s no surprise that buyers are going to great lengths to secure the limited inventory available. 

The market is teeming with anecdotes of bidding wars and properties selling over asking price, and the data is now reflective of these rumours, albeit slightly, with properties selling at 101 per cent of asking price on average on TRREB, and over 40 per cent of properties selling over asking price. Prices are beginning to rise into the spring market, despite a 36.5 per cent decrease in volume compared to last March.

Days on Market, or the amount of time it takes a property to sell on average, is the data point that continues to surprise in 2023, with significant year-over-year changes in February and March. 

House prices in the GTA remain the big, ugly, looming question for both buyers and sellers and rightfully so. The market is sending mixed messages, with monthly average house prices up two to ten per cent since last month, depending on the GTA market, after falling 14.6 per cent since March of last year. 

Only time will tell whether or not these changes in price are reflective of a return to the seasonal ebbs and flows of a spring market or something different altogether. 

Among the backdrop of a bear market for house prices and against the headwinds of a looming recession in Canada’s economy, all eyes are on Toronto’s seemingly forward-looking housing market to serve as a leading indicator for what the remainder of Canada can expect for the year to come. 

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