Is The Market Slowing Down?

There has been a lot of talk about the Real Estate market in Toronto throughout this year. Predominately, it has been a sellers market, meaning the demand from today's buyers has been higher then the inventory of homes available for sale. This news is good for the sellers and means bidding wars for buyers. Losing bidding wars with buyers can be discouraging, I have dealt with this scenario many times throughout the year and have also been on the receiving end of it with my listings. Almost all Realtors, myself included, have been listing properties below market value with offer deadlines, and almost every time receiving multiple offers.With the holiday season fast approaching, everyone is asking themselves if the market is going to stabilize. Well, there's definitely arguments on both sides.

TREB (Toronto Real Estate Board) reported that 3,477 transaction were completed through the Toronto MLS during the first 2 weeks of October, up 20% over 2,890 sales reported during the first 2 weeks of October 2010. The average selling price, during the first 2 weeks of October was $475,743-up 7.5% compared to the same time last year. On Tuesday, during a news conference in Ottawa, our finance minister,Jim Flaherty said "he's not expecting a recession in Canada...". He also said "the economists forecast is not doom and gloom" reported by CBC News.

BUT, speaking with my fellow Realtors, the general sentiment is that things are slowing down. We are seeing offer deadlines come and go with low or no offers at all. Buyers are getting fed up paying sky high prices or losing bidding wars, that they are standing on the sidelines waiting for that date to come and go. We all know real estate is about location, location, location, but agents are starting to take better care in pricing properties close to or at market value. Also, Bank of Canada (BofC) kept it's overnight rate at 1%. The BofC said "that the risks to Canada's economy were roughly balanced, and as such there was no need for a change at this point", reported by News.

So, what does all this say about our Toronto market? I know that when I showed properties today, 4 out of 5 have offer deadlines.......will they get multiple offers? I don't know, but one things certain, only time will tell, as the market never lies.

What are your thoughts?