Nick Horton, salesperson – Oct. 31/2020

A topic of discussion in the Toronto real estate market recently has been the growing number of new daily listings, specifically in the condo market. The number of new listings is a closely watched statistic – a flood of new listings translates to more options for buyers and can also indicate a softening market. As the rental market cools off, many units that are typically geared towards investors are appearing on the resale market. This indicates that some investors are cashing out and deciding to sell their units instead of accepting less rent. This is adding to the growing number of new listings.     

Although, there is a flaw in the ‘new listing’ statistic. Any realtor worth their salt will advise a client to ‘re-list’ their property instead of ‘reduce’ their property. It’s a bit of paperwork that will result in canceling the listing and uploading it again, instead of only ‘updating’ the listing with a new price. The number of days the property has been on the market is reset and it is also back at the front of the line in our new listings feed. Some argue this practice inflates the actual number of new listings and as a result, makes the widely cited statistic less accurate.

Regardless, the condo market is where most price reductions are taking place right now and this practice of ‘re-listing’ instead of ‘reducing’ will be more frequent in a softening market. This week I have picked out a few of my favourite reduced listings.

On the freehold (house) side, I am continuing to see surprising strength, with prices of houses and condos moving in opposite directions. When the Toronto Real Estate Board’s sales statistics come out next week, I expect the numbers to indicate as much.

In next week’s newsletter, I will focus on the strength of the downtown Toronto freehold market when I feature a bungalow in Leslieville that received 17 offers.