Who hit the pause button on the Toronto real estate market?

It seems that the super active, frantic buying season that we experienced at the beginning of the year is over but what should we expect to happen next?

With interest rates rising, war in Ukraine still waging on, China going through severe lockdowns and rumblings of a global recession on the horizon, it would seems that things aren't looking too bright for the near future.

This would typically coincide with a reduction in year-over-year price growth but we have actually seen the opposite happen in the past several months.

The key factor that is driving this continued price growth is that we still have extremely limited housing inventory across the GTA and more demand than supply.

To put it simply, if there were 100 buyers for every property at the beginning of 2022, that number would probably be closer to 10-20 buyers for every property now.

There is still demand in the marketplace, it just isn't as intense as it was for the past 18 months.

While we saw an influx of inventory in March, this has started to wain over the past two months as many sellers are reading the news about the market not being as strong & as a result, they have decided not to list their homes for sale at this time.

The other trend we have seen in the marketplace lately is many homes failing to get multiple offers like they would have in January/February, however there are some exceptions to this rule.

Unique properties like condo lofts, townhouses or homes in desirable neighbourhoods like Rosedale, Leslieville, The Beaches, etc. are still garnering a lot of interest with multiple offers and purchase prices 140% over asking.

Where we have seen a slowdown is for properties that are not in high-demand locations or homes/condos that have odd layouts.

At the beginning of the year, there was so little inventory available that people were willing to make many sacrifices just to buy something.

Now we are seeing people be a bit more selective with their purchases which in turn has tempered pricing in certain areas/for certain properties.

It's impossible to predict what will happen next but it's likely that we will continue to see low inventory levels as sellers remain hesitant about listing at this time which in turn will keep upwards pressure on prices as supply levels remain low.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with what happens in the coming months so be sure to check back for more content & follow on Instagram for more regular updates!

What do you think is going to happen over the rest of 2022?

Let me know in the comments section below!

Rylie C.