Real Estate

What percentage of detached homes in Toronto are selling for more than $1.7 million? You’ve seen the headlines. Housing prices are on the rise. Buyers are getting frustrated with the high prices and the bidding wars. Given the low interest rates and the need for more space, we don’t see housing prices going down anytime soon. In fact, it seems as though the only way is up. As much as we might complain about the high prices of housing right now, in 5 years, we’ll be saying, “Do you remember when a detached house was only $1.7 million?” I know this sounds hard to believe.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the 14th Annual Post City Real Estate Roundtable – “Real Estate 2021: City vs. Suburbs” hosted by University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. 

Are the current increases in real estate prices unsustainable? What we are seeing is a tale of the haves and have-nots playing out before our eyes in the economy and in the housing market. It’s as if we’ve entered the domain of the movie The Hunger Games which featured volunteers from various districts fighting for their survival while the wealthy watched.

How many semi-detached houses are selling for more than $1.4 million? Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a trend with the prices of semi-detached houses in the core (C01, C02, C03, C04, C08, C09, C10, C11, E01, E02, E03, E06, W01, W02, W03 – see below for map) of Toronto. Pricing trends in the real estate market tend to be gradual but what I’m noticing seems like a more drastic trend. It’s an upward trajectory on the prices of semi-detached houses in Toronto. Many home buyers will now be shut out of the semi-detached housing market and more likely to buy condos.

I’ve heard a lot of people comment that when those mortgage deferrals end, the housing market will be in trouble. Well it’s the end of October now and the market hasn’t collapsed. The mortgage delinquency rate across Canada pre-covid was 0.29% and in Toronto where real estate is the most expensive, the rate was 0.11%, which is incredibly low. I recently attended a presentation where Shaun Hildebrand from Urbanation highlighted some interesting statistics. At the end of June 2020, 760,000 Canadians (roughly 16% of mortgage holders) had taken advantage of the mortgage deferral programs.