As we navigate through these uncertain times, we are wondering what condo life will look like in the future. To illustrate how quickly the condo market changed as a result of COVID-19, resale activity was up 25% year-over-year during the first half of March 2020 and fell 21% year-over-year in the second half of the month, with even steeper annual declines of over 70% reported for April. However, the GTA market was exceptionally tight leading into the COVID-19 period, creating spillover demand that has enabled the limited number of units on the market to continue transacting. In fact, the average sale price-to-list-price ratio has remained near 100% through April, and the average days on market was unchanged at 18 days.
The April stats were released this week from the Toronto Real Estate Board and as bleak as it may look with sales down 67%, home prices remained at April 2019 levels. There was also a report put out by CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing) that suggested Canada’s real estate prices probably wouldn’t return to pre-covid levels until the end of 2022. The experts reject that bleak outlook suggesting national outlooks do not necessarily reveal regional, municipal, or even neighbourhood distinctions, and some experts say Toronto’s prospects may not be so bleak.
Awh…the month of May when spring gradually blooms into summer and finally some good news to report. Some economists apparently predict home prices to rise 6% this year and we can expect to see rapid price growth once the outbreak passes, several recent forecasts have predicted, even amid massive job losses. Despite a steep drop in sales this year, the average home price in Canada will be 6.1% higher at the end of this year than it was a year earlier, TD Bank said in a forecast issued this week.