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. This is the third time I've compiled these numbers (following Q4 2016 and Q2 2016). I will excerpt some charts in this blog post, but the full report is available here on this website, or as a SlideShare presentation. Please note... [read more]

First of all it's important to know what goes into the price of a home. You may be familiar with MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation). They're the ones that do your property assessments every four years upon which your municipal property taxes are based. They're responsible for assessing and classifying more than 5 million properties so they know a little about home values. According to MPAC, the following 5 factors account for 85% of the value of a house: Show me... [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]

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. Here's where you can find the posts for Q2 2017, Q4 2016 and Q2 2016. I will show some of the charts in this blog post, but for the full picture, the... [read more]

[Note: the analysis from this blog post was referenced in a Globe & Mail article in March of 2018.] The calendar just turned from February to March. That means February real estate statistics will be released next week. And that means we're going to be seeing harsh year-over-year (YoY) price comparisons for the next few months. If you want a fun drinking game, have a shot every time you hear or read the media use any variation on the word "plunge" related to... [read more]