Mid-January Toronto sales horrible!

[trent]

TREB has released their Mid-January GTA sales numbers and the picture is not pretty. GTA had 888 sales compared to 1776 during the first half of January 2008. This is exactly 50% down folks, are you scared yet? If you are not properly scared the following numbers will do the trick. The average price for the same period in GTA was $332,495 down from $367,574, which is 9.5% down.

But wait there is more; the Toronto (416) numbers are even scarier than GTA J. Toronto had only 369 sales in the same period down from 800 last year. This translates to 54% down for number of sales. The mid-January average price in Toronto dived to $350,835 from $394,205 in the first 15 days of January 2008. This is 11% price decline.

By this time you should be properly scared. If not then wait for “Spring market” all sellers are pinning their hopes on; when it doesn’t materialize there will be a widespread sellers’ panic and scramble to get to the exits first. Then the bottom of the Toronto’s real estate market will truly fall out.

[Steven]

I think that 11% decline is not that bad considering the gains the market had in the last several years. The thing thta worries me more is the huge sales decline.

[canfra]

The real estate crash in United States is finally coming to Canada. This is bad news. I kind of hoped it will not happen in Canada.

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by canfra

The real estate crash in United States is finally coming to Canada. This is bad news. I kind of hoped it will not happen in Canada.

I don't think this is a bad news for prudent savers, who didn't buy in the Canadian real estate bubble. On the contrary, this is a very good news for people saving to buy a home. The only thing needed now is patience, as prices have a long way to come down to more realistic levels.

[trent]

Originally Posted by Canadian

I don't think this is a bad news for prudent savers, who didn't buy in the Canadian real estate bubble. On the contrary, this is a very good news for people saving to buy a home. The only thing needed now is patience, as prices have a long way to come down to more realistic levels.

I agree, that this is good news for normal people, not addicted to debt. Unfortunately most people have the "I want it now, even though I can't afford it" mentality, or to be precise "I want it now, even though I would never be able to afford it"

[Canadian]

Hopefully next week we'll have the sales numbers for Toronto for entire January, and this should give us a better idea where the market is going.

[Steven]

I hope that the market will bottom by the end of this year. It's not pleasant watching your equity disappear...

[bullish]

The spring season is just around the corner, and I'm afraid that many of you waiting for lower prices will be sorely disappointed. The spring is traditionally the strongest season for real estate, and this year won't be an exception.

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by bullish

The spring season is just around the corner, and I'm afraid that many of you waiting for lower prices will be sorely disappointed. The spring is traditionally the strongest season for real estate, and this year won't be an exception.

This spring season will be awful for real estate in Toronto, and most of Canada. Many, many sellers will pull their hair, for buying in the realtors' propaganda and not selling while they were able to get super-inflated price for their homes. The speculators will be the first to bail out, as soon as it's clear that the price appreciation game is over. They surely cannot afford to rent out their "investment" properties if the rent barely covers 50% of their mortgage .

Once speculators start dumping homes and condos en masse the prices will crash 10-15% in a matter of 2-3 months. I wonder what will the TREB say at this point, maybe something along those lines - The prices are still higher than 1998 and now it's a good time to buy...

[trent]

TREB haven't released the full January Toronto sales numbers yet. We can expect them around Friday afternoon I guess . TREB can no longer afford to publish terrible sales numbers and crashing prices in the beginning or the middle of the week, as it will draw too much attention.