By Michael McCann
September means three things:
- The kids return to school
- Summer holidays end and it’s back to work
- And so begins the fall resale housing market
Starting on Labour Day and running till the Thanksgiving weekend, this cycle is the second busiest period for our housing market, next to the spring.
But before we put the summer of 2012 behind us, let’s have a look at what’s up with the Birchcliff/Cliffside housing statistics.
The average sold price for August shows an increase of almost $60,000 over July’s average sold price.
This jump can be attributed to the fact that ten of the 27 homes sold were over $600,000 price mark.
Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in August 2012 – 27 homes sold
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board. Excludes commercial properties, condos and vacant land.
Percentage of list price
What I see as a critical metric from the summer months is % of list price.
If you look at the average % of list it actually dropped to 97% in August.
There was a slight increase in the number of homes sold in August, but there was more inventory due to homes that didn’t sell in the late spring market.
There were fewer buyers searching for a home in August and when they did find one it resulted in sellers and buyers negotiating one-on-one with offer and counter offer.
In this traditional bargaining scenario we see homes selling for less than asking price.
High end of market
It seems this shortage of buyers cascaded over the high end of the market as well, with the percentage of list price dropping each month from June until August.
Again, bidding wards did not occur as frequently in August and when multiple offers occurred there were fewer buyers willing to participate.
So in this instance prices were often softer as buyers’ offers were prudent and more considered.
Similar in September?
We are almost through September and I suspect housing prices will remain soft as buyers continue to be cautious prior to committing to an investment
[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]March[/tabtext] [tabtext]April[/tabtext] [tabtext]May[/tabtext] [tabtext]June[/tabtext] [tabtext]July[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in March 2012 – 29 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in April 2012 – 42 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in May 2012 – 28 homes sold [/tab] [tab][/tab] [tab][/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs] These statistics are based on the Toronto Real Estate Board’s designation for Birchcliff/Cliffside, which can be seen on the map below.
View Birch Cliff / Cliffside in a larger map
