Brian Matthews's blog

December 2024

Dear Friend,

Borrowing rates drop, Home sales rise!

A good month of sales in November as Toronto realtors sold 5,875 homes, 40.1% more than just a year ago. Lower borrowing costs have made home ownership more affordable, and buyers are taking advantage. The inventory of homes available for sale now stands at 21,818, offering a choice of homes, something the GTA market has not often had. The average price in the GTA year to date now stands at $1,120,000, 5.9% below the record average price of 1,190,742, set in 2022. While the average price being down 5.9% seems not too...

Designated Representative, what does that mean?

At Re/Max Realtron and it's sub-brokerages like Re/Max Realtron TPS are designated representative brokerages.

So the person you are signing with at Re/Max Realtron is your representative and not the entire brokerage.

Before TRESA when you signed a listing or buyers agreement, it was with the brokerage and technically anyone who worked for the brokerage (even if they never met you) was representing you.

This is difficult in brokerages with 100's of independent agents with different business plans.  It also meant you had to sign off on multiple...

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Toronto.

It is as important today as it ever has been to Remember.

Below is a link for services in Toronto

https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/awards-tributes/tributes/toronto-remembers/remembrance-day-service/

November 2024

Dear Friend,

October marked a very significant change to the real estate market in the GTA! The most significant was not only that the number of sales was 44% higher than a year ago, but the number of homes available for sale dropped as more buyers entered the marketplace.

These numbers highlight the effect of the drop in borrowing costs, allowing more buyers to qualify and increasing affordability.

6,658 homes sold in October (at an average price of $1,121,871) and with 24,481 homes currently for sale means that the average buyer has a choice of 4 homes available...

Dear Toronto,

It is that time of the year again!  Time to declare to the City that your residential property is vacant or occupied.

You did it last year?  Doesn't matter, it is a yearly declaration.  Have multiple properties? The declaration is required for each property you own.

If you forget, the city will assume it is vacant and send you a bill.  April 30th 2025 is the deadline, so there is lots of time.

Hope this helps.

Brian Matthews, Realtor

Re/Max Realtron TPS Realty Inc.

Visit Link Below

https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/property-taxes-utilities/vacant-home-tax/

...

Today is October 20th 2024, and I am seeing one of the best buyers markets for Resale Toronto Condos in about 10-12 years.

Over the last two years we have heard a lot about unaffordability, housing shortages and, the like.

Well, when a seller's market becomes a buyer's market it can take time to reach affordable levels again.

Right now I am seeing a combination of excess inventory, long days on market, falling interest rates and, seller pressure to sell.

When this happens the buyers who are in the market ready to pounce will be the winners.

How will you know?

Right now I am seeing over 600...

The federal government has announced changes to mortgage rules in Canada coming December 2024.

First, the government will allow 30 year amortization for ALL NEW BUILD BUYERS and also 30 year amortization for ALL first-time home buyers regardless if they buy resale or new construction.

This I think is the material change that younger buyers will take advantage of...they get now a comfortable payment and can later build in pre-payments to bring the amortization down on subsequent term renewals.

The second change is the government is increasing CMHC insured mortgages to $1.5 million from $1...

The Bank of Canada lowered it's rate on July 24th 2024 by .25% to an overnight rate of 4.5%.

This overnight rate is what the banks get, your mortgage rate will be higher.

In relation the prime rate is 6.7% which is what the banks base their variable interest rates to you.

Good news...is that the Bank of Canada is on a rate declining cycle. How fast it happens, depends on the economy, the employment numbers etc. 

Bad news...we will still find people who bought in 2019 renewing now into much higher rates.

In July 2019 the Bank of Canada overnight rate was 1.75 and the prime rate was 3.95%,...

How many vacant Resale Toronto Condos are available as of July 9th 2024?

I will calculate this by districts starting with the Central Districts of Toronto.

In C01 right now there are 751 Vacant Resale Toronto Condo Apartments available for sale in all price ranges.

In C02-C04 there are 196 available in all price ranges.

In C06-C07 there are 127 available in all price ranges.

In C08 there are 509 available in all price ranges.

In C09-C12 there are 189 in all price ranges.

In C13-15 there are 331 in all price ranges.

Totaling 2103 Vacant Resale Toronto Condos in all Toronto Central...

June 2024 416 Resale Toronto Condo Stats

Above is the first page of TRREB June Market Watch.

As you can see 416 condos have sold 1014 units at an average price of $763148.

Above is how I track the same stats on a ten year track.

As you can see 1014 is the lowest amount of units sold in ten years. Also, you can see the June price movement is statistically flat since June 2022 and marginally up since June 2021.

This compiled with the amount of available inventory means we are in a Buyer's Market for 416 Resale Toronto Condos.

Also at the same time, mortgage interest rates are on a downward...