Toronto Real Estate Market September 2022. Toronto real estate agents with the most customer reviews

On an annual comparison between August 2021 to August 2022, the trend of seeing the highest demand for the most affordable properties continues. With condos being the most affordable housing sector, condos in the 905 suburbs saw the highest price increases on average by +6.0% between August 2021 to August 2022. 

On the other hand, the more expensive housing sectors saw price decreases over the past year (detached homes and semi-detached homes). The housing sector that saw the lowest increase, on average, was semi-detached homes in Toronto which saw a price drop of -7.3% between August 2021 to August 2022. 

Although the volume of sales has increased since mid-summer July, housing prices, on the whole, continued to soften. On a month-to-month comparison, all housing sectors saw price decreases with the exception of detached homes which saw a +1.26% increase in the average price, between July 2022 to August 2022.

 Tips for Selling

*Instead of marketing the property for sale, consider keeping your property as an investment and renting it out. August and early September are the best times to secure a tenant, especially for properties within walking distance to post-secondary schools or within close walking distance to TTC transit. The majority of rental properties saw huge rental price increases of around +17% compared to last summer. This is an opportunistic time for owners to allow the rent to cover the cost of ownership for at least another year or two until our inflation is under control, the overall economy has improved, and the market will be more favourable for obtaining a higher selling price. Once our 40-year record high inflation has normalized and the economy has improved, our real estate market is very likely to shift back in favour of sellers

*If you have decided to sell a property this year and keeping it as an investment property is not an option, it is in your best interest to market your property for sale sooner than later. With our government planning multiple interest rate hikes over the course of the next half year to help offset inflation (with our most recent 0.75% mortgage interest rate hike announced two days ago on September 7th - you may click here to view an article), the current slowdown in buyer activity is likely to continue or at least hold steady. Also, as new property owners approach their mortgage renewal terms at a much higher interest rate, for those who purchased a home in the past few years at their absolute maximum carrying cost, we will see a small percentage of property owners will be forced to downsize if the new increased mortgage interest rate is too high of a financial burden. For those who will be selling a property due to financial duress, this will increase the number of listings available which is only favourable for purchasing.

Consider working with a team that provides an effective marketing plan to maximize your property's exposure in order to achieve the highest possible sold price in this shifting market.

Tips for Buying

*it's a good time to purchase if you're actively looking to buy a property in the GTA. There are +62.3% more active listings in the GTA than there were last August 2021. There is certainly more room to negotiate on price and terms, especially for properties that are not offering a particularly unique or rare feature

*Unfortunately, none of us can predict the bottom price of a market or how quickly prices will increase once the market shifts away from a buyer's market. Our heated seller's market over the past few years shifted essentially overnight in early March of this year as soon as we saw the first mortgage rate increase of the year. Government policies tend to have immediate and significant impacts on the market; and, with very little notice provided for new policy announcements and the unpredictability of other factors influencing our economy, it's not possible to time the market. For those who are trying to time the market, consider consulting your mortgage broker to understand the full impact of increased carrying costs due to significantly higher mortgage interest rates if purchasing a property is pushed further off. As long as your intent to purchase is to hold onto the property for at least three years, our team encourages clients to move forward when the right property presents itself, in order to not miss the right opportunity by attempting to "time the market". 

Consider working with a team that can guide you in your home buying journey and a team who can provide access to off-market exclusive listings including VIP broker pre-construction pricing, to provide you with more options!