I've been seeing plenty of tweets like this one and this one and the latest Home Price Index numbers from TRREB look like this: The City of Toronto has the lowest price growth across the GTA (though at 23% year-over-year it's hardly pedestrian). There have been plenty of "urban exodus" articles written since COVID began. That can explain some of why there has been crazy price growth in the suburbs as of late. Why are 39 people offering on subdivisions in Ajax (with... [read more]

Are you curious how your house or condo has appreciated over time compared to the average in the city? Or how those average price increases look versus the stock market? Well then you came to the right place. I've been compiling this after the June and December market statistics are released, going back to 2016 (historical reports here). But it's been a minute since my last post on this, for Q4 2019. That post is still getting a lot of reads, so I figured I really... [read more]

Consumers are now armed with more data than ever on housing. TRREB makes all of its monthly statistics available to the public via its website (and has for a long time). You've got several websites to choose from that give you sold data. And you've got a handful that use some kind of algorithms (I'm assuming) to give you price estimates for homes that are currently on the market - which is important these days since 65% of freeholds (detached, semi-detached, and rowhouses) this year... [read more]

There is a segment of the population that's rooting for a crash in Toronto housing prices. There are Facebook groups with bubble in their group name, and I often see comments with this angle on real estate Twitter. I get it. Prices are high, and some people that want to buy feel their only hope is if we are actually in a bubble and that bubble bursts. Meanwhile prices keep climbing and climbing and climbing. Now, do I think they're always going to go up? No. Do I think they... [read more]

The MLS® Home Price Index ("HPI") has been emphasized a bit more by the Toronto Real Estate Board ("TREB") recently, and I've been seeing it mentioned in the media a bit more of late. This index is supposed to work like the Consumer Price Index ("CPI") that most are familiar with. The CPI tracks changes in price of a "basket of goods and services," while the HPI tracks a "basket of home attributes." In both cases what's in the basket... [read more]