Robust local housing market

By Michael McCann

We are now well into April and many of us are celebrating the arrival of spring.

As we get ready for the warmer temperatures to come, our spring Birchcliff/Cliffside  real estate market is also heating up.

The spring months are the most active in the Toronto real estate market  in terms of  the volume of homes sold.

I got some great feedback from neighbours who found the comparison of the Birchcliff housing market statistics vis-a-vis the Toronto and Canadian numbers insightful.

So, let’s compare March last year to what happened in 2013:

Birchcliff/Cliffside

• March 2012 saw 29 sold homes while in March 2013 we had 36 sold properties – Up 24%
• March 2012’s average sold price was $526,497 and in March 2013 the average sold price was $620,349 – Up 19%

Toronto Real Estate Board 

• 9,387  sales in March 2012 with March 2013 showing 7,765 sales – Down 17%
• $500,875 average selling price March 2012 with March 2013 coming in at $519,876 – Up 3.8%

Canadian Real Estate Association

• March 2013 sales were down 15.3% over last year
• The national average home sale price was up 2.5% year-over-year**

**It should be noted that on a national basis it would be difficult to establish a realistic average price in that the data includes major housing markets such as Toronto and Vancouver as well small ones like Corner Brook and Comox.

Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in March 2013 – 36 homes sold

Source:  Toronto Real Estate Board. Excludes commercial properties, condos and vacant land.

So why is Birchcliff/Cliffside breaking the National and GTA trend in seeing greater sales as well as double-digit increases in house value?

Of all the homes sold in our neighbourhood on a month by month basis, almost 90% are detached properties.

90% is an incredible statistic if you compare it to our neighbours to the west.

East end Danforth came in at 33% detached and The Beach at 40%.   Remember for most us who choose to live in Birchcliff/Cliffside, I would say the two deciding factors were:

1. Proximity and easy accessibility to downtown Toronto
2. The privacy and value of a detached home

Those same motivational factors are still relevant with today’s buyers and are reflected in our robust local housing market.  So pat yourself on the back for making that decision years ago to call Birchcliff home…it paid off.

For a look at local real estate prices over the last six months, click on the tabs.

[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]February[/tabtext] [tabtext]January[/tabtext] [tabtext]December[/tabtext] [tabtext]November[/tabtext] [tabtext]October[/tabtext] [tabtext]September[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in February 2013 – 23 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in January 2013 – 18 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in December 2012 – 11 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in November 2012 – 27 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in October 2012 – 19 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in September 2012 – 19 homes sold [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]

According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, our local housing market is defined as Birch Cliff/Cliffside and the boundaries can be seen below.

View Birch Cliff / Cliffside in a larger map