The time is almost upon us to ring in the new year and for many of us to embrace change. The real estate market in 2017 has been anything but typical in the GTA and the fickleness looks set to continue right into 2018. There is so much uncertainty as to how the real estate market will unfold as we head into the new year. Royal LePage is forecasting a 6.8% increase in housing prices next year, but Remax Canada predicts a more conservative 0% price change. So, what will it be? Will the lack of housing supply in big-city markets, including Toronto drive prices up?
As the calendar flips for the last time this year and we are three weeks shy of Christmas, it feels like we are all gearing up for the holiday festivities. The offices are a little slower, listings are dropping off and the buyers are taking a break. The November stats were released from The Toronto Real Estate Board and for the City of Toronto the average price was up 2 percent to $802,220 from November 2016. We saw a sizable number of new listings (14,349) for the entire GTA, up by 37 percent compared to November 2016. This boost to home ownership could be because of the upcoming changes to mortgage guidelines, which come into effect in January. On a year-to-year basis, the average selling price was up by 13.4 percent compared to same period last year. All the negative headlines are for the entire GTA, but conditions continue to be stronger for the City of Toronto.