By Michael McCann
We are officially into spring, so from now until June is traditionally the busiest real estate cycle of the year.
The media have certainly been consistent in reporting that overall we are seeing a downturn in the number of homes sold.
The question on everyone’s lips is “will this trend continue?”
It seems that Birch Cliff/Cliffside has not been immune to slumping sales in our neighbourhood.
Let’s compare last month to February 2012:
Birch Cliff/Cliffside
- February 2012 saw 35 sold homes while Feb 2013 had only 23 sold properties – down 34%
Toronto Real Estate Board
- Citywide sales in February 2013 were 5,759, which is down 15% over last February
Canadian Real Estate Association
- February 2013 saw national sales down 15.8% below levels from February 2012
(Note: Remember that we had one extra day in February last year due to the leap year, which does impact year to year monthly statistics.)
Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in February 2013 – 23 homes sold
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board all sold homes excludes commercial properties, condos and vacant land
House prices across Canada, the GTA and our neighbourhood are still holding their value .
Our average sold price for Feb 2013 was $713,870 which is certainly much higher than February 2012 where the average sold price came in at $594,131.
However, this spike in house value is a statistical anomaly and here is why:
- We have a smaller data sample for February 2013
- The lowest price in February 2013 is $100,000 more than the comparable price last year
- We did see a number of $1,000,000 properties sell this year, which skewed average home prices higher
So the spring real estate market is now on.
One thing we should all be watching is mortgage rates. Some of the big banks are starting to offer lower mortgage rates to home buyers, which is certainly contradictory to what federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been advocating since mid 2012.
[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]January[/tabtext] [tabtext]December[/tabtext] [tabtext]November[/tabtext] [tabtext]October[/tabtext] [tabtext]September[/tabtext] [tabtext]August[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [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] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in August 2012 – 27 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
