David Dunkelman, Broker

The Toronto real estate market right now can best be described as a balanced market. If you own a house or condo in a desirable location and the product has no glaring deficiencies and is priced reasonably you should be able to attract a buyer and maybe multiple buyers as listing inventory is very low at the moment and mortgage rates are very competitive. The $250,000-$799,000 market representing most first time buyers has definitely slowed down somewhat this fall with the number of multiple offers decreasing. However; the $800,000-$1,500,000 market which is sometimes lagging is seeing lots of activity and a large number of sales. Are existing homeowners sensing this is a good time to move up to a bigger home ? There is pretty decent value in the aforementioned price range and buyers are recognizing this and jumping in. Once you push over 1.5 million into the luxury Toronto real estate market you will find a larger number of listings but with very few willing buyers. While there have been some notable high-end sales recently, by and large this market has been noticeably quiet. This tells me sellers of luxury real estate in Toronto are going to have to reduce prices if they want to attract buyers and get their home sold. Right now sellers are still holding out for fall 2009 and spring 2010 prices when there was a bit of an upward spike in the market. Today's market more closely resembles 2008 and early 2009 when prices were more or less flat. How long this stagnation in the higher-end market will last is anybodys guess. Overall the Toronto real estate market remains very healthy and there is some optimism that winter 2011 could be a very busy market in all price ranges with lots of activity.
David Dunkelman