Condo sales led the way in November, jumping 10.3% as buyers shift their sights to highrises.

Susan Pigg – Toronto Star

In a market where houses are hot — the temperature climbs to scalding closer to subway lines — it was a given that 1 Fenwick Avenue would draw a crowd when the five-bedroom Riverdale home went up for sale last month.

What few — including veteran listing agent Richard Silver — expected, however, was that the massive home, which needs at least $500,000 in renovations, would draw 23 offers and go for more than $600,000 over its $1.1 million asking price, selling for $1.745 million and pushing it to the top echelon of its Withrow Park neighbours.

“This was about location and a once-in-a-lifetime house,” said Silver on Thursday, as the Toronto Real Estate Board released November sales figures. They showed that the lack of enough single-family homes to meet unrelenting buyer demand has helped push average GTA prices up another 8.4% so far this year.

“I don’t believe in underpricing properties,” said Silver, acknowledging that he seems to have done just that. “Properties close to the park always go for a high price, but a lot of us were totally blown away that people were willing to pay that much.”

As news of the Nov. 11 sale was still making its way up the quiet street, which runs south off of Danforth Avenue to the park’s northerly playground, another bidding war was brewing. It was just a couple of doors north and also drew a big crowd, even as the market would normally start to slow for the holidays.

Number 5 Fenwick Avenue, a smaller but updated version of its ramshackle neighbour, got 22 offers and sold for almost $1.4 million, some $400,000 over the asking price.

New listings were down 5.3% in November, year over year, and active listings — the total number of properties listed on the MLS system — were down 8.5% as more folks opt to stay in their homes over the fear, and cost, of trying to find something else.

Comment: Which is the main reason for these crazy sale prices. I had a condo that had been listed 4 times before over the past 2 years, no sale. We listed it higher than any of those other listings and it sold in 3 days. Buyers are desperate!

That’s been playing out, largely since the 2008 recession, in a shortage of listings that’s unlikely to ease going into 2015, said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, in a telephone interview. And it’s not just impacting sought-after Toronto properties, but some pockets of Durham, York and Halton regions as well.

“The resulting sellers’ market conditions are forecast to drive strong price growth through the remainder of 2014 and indeed into 2015 as well,” Mercer said in a statement.

Some 3.5 months’ worth of inventory — enough houses and condos to last through just over a quarter year of sales — is considered the norm for Toronto (six months is the national norm).

“But in a lot of districts of Toronto you’re now seeing inventory below two months,” said Mercer.

Some 6,519 houses and condos changed hands across the GTA in November, up 2.6% from the 6,354 that sold in the same month of 2013. Demand from buyers remains so strong, fuelled in large part by low interest rates, that total transactions, which hit 88,462 as of the end of November, are expected to surpass the 2007 record of 93,200.

Comment: All those sales amongst a dwindling supply, remember. New listings and active listings keep dropping and dropping. Yet sales will set a new record. Crazy!

That fierce competition not only continues to drive up house prices, but it is propping up the condo sector as more buyers realize they may never be able to afford a single-family home.

Condo sales led the way in November, up 10.3%. While increasing supply helped keep price growth to about 4.5% across the GTA — resale transactions averaged $370,641 — realtors have been surprised to see multiple bids even on unique lofts close to the core, which are getting harder to find.

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information – 416-388-1960

Laurin Jeffrey is a Toronto real estate agent with Century 21 Regal Realty.
He did not write these articles, he just reproduces them here for people who
are interested in Toronto real estate. He does not work for any builders.
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