Ever since the middle of December, we have seen buyers returning to the marketplace. The number of showings, registered offers on properties, and a rebound in sales prices in line with February 2023 have increased each month.
How has this happened so quickly?
Realities in life tell us a few factors that we cannot pass up; some may argue conjecture, but from where we sit, these are factors that always drive Toronto’s real estate market:
- People grow out of their space
- People marry and have families
- Others convert one home into two (a polite way of addressing the reverse of number two)
- Immigration plays a huge role.
Slow down or halt any or all of the above, as we have seen, with rate hikes, media speculation, wars, and equity market uncertainty, and you will see a slowdown in real estate. With time, we have found that media conjecture was inaccurate (the market has been rebounding), and US equity markets bucked all the expectations and rose substantially. Despite the number of saddening wars worldwide and political discourse near and far, we continue to have a need and a want to move our lives forward and live where we love.
Have we risen from the bottom of Toronto’s most recent real estate market? The short answer is yes, we can see that. The longer question is whether this is sustainable. We suspect buying now will be a solid investment, proven in the next two or three years. As interest rates lower, more buyers will return with the pent-up demand to drive our values higher. It may take a year and a half or two for those to begin purchasing, but we predict we will see a robust marketplace showing price growth.
