A few days ago the Toronto Real Estate Board posted it’s January sales numbers and surprise surprise, sales volume was down drastically year over year in comparison to January 2017. This came as no shock to me.

For those who remember last January (and February and March) sales prices were defying logic and it didn’t come back down to earth until April, which then cooled right through late fall in most neighbourhoods.

Also important to note, this January was the second lowest sales activity over the past ten years, only to be bested by the recession sales of 2009.

If you are thinking the housing market has corrected…it hasn’t, well at least not yet. and it doesn’t look to be doing so anytime soon.

Prices for the most part are still rising, which can be confirmed by speaking with any Buyer who has bought over the past 30 days.

With the exception of the uber-expensivce detached home market which saw a small price decline of 3.9%, the rest of the housing types continue to increase in price. Semi-detached homes were 3.7% more expensive, Town Homes 8.2% and the sizzling hot condo market is up 15.1%!!

As the gap narrows between detached home values and the rest of the market don’t be surprised if there’s a turnaround in average prices for detached homes in a few months time. Below are end of January 2018 housing type prices.

• Detached sales average $1,283,981
• Semi detached average $936,623
• Town houses average $712,186
• Condo average $543,279

Supply is STILL the issue and there are many financially well armed buyers out there snapping up the limited amount of good listings to hit the market. This past week I sold two listings and both deposits were for a minimum of $100,000! These Buyers aren’t messing around!

Will this pace keep up? It’s really become difficult to tell.  Well funded Buyers and those benefiting from being in the market with property to sell are very confident for the time being. But it will be interesting to see what’s next from the government as they’ve pretty much thrown multiple grenades over the past few years which look to be not working (although side note: it is pricing an entire class out of owning real estate in Toronto, which sucks!) much in cooling the demand.

My advice is to proceed with caution while having a trusted (and I emphasize trusted) real estate agent by your side who is dialled into the market who can help guide you through this incredibly tricky market. The downside it too risky, and too expensive to misstep.