Beauty Contests and Price Wars

Across Canada, the first quarter of the year showed signs of a different market compared to 2017; decreased sales, months-of-inventory rising and buyers and sellers alike asking the question: what next?

With the beginning of Q2, will warming temperatures mean a hotter market? Let’s look at the stats below and find out.

Toronto (GTA), ON

The Toronto Real Estate Board has a Beauty and the Beast complex. Yes, it looks ugly at first site, but if we look at the numbers, it’s not all as bad as it seems. Year-over-year, sales are down over 32% and active listings have risen nearly 41%. Compared to April 2017, the average price has fallen 12.4%. While these are scary looking numbers, it’s not as bad as it looks. Our MOI sits at 2.3, which translates to an incredibly strong and balanced market, plus the average price since January 2018 has already risen 9.2%. For all the numbers and my analysis, check out my video here:

Edmonton, AB

Edmonton has been seeing an improvement every month in 2018. Sales have been steadily rising along with the inventory. Compared to last year, it is only off by 0.3%. The biggest difference to last year is the inventory being up by 14.9%, meaning the months of inventory will also have an increase. Due to supply and demand, prices will go down, but only marginally. For the detailed analysis and insight on the micro markets, see my video here:

Vancouver, BC

Vancouver is in an uphill battle. The speculation tax, land transfer tax, foreign homebuyers tax and interest rate hikes has made this market unpredictable. Average price continues to rise month-over-month with the average home sitting around 1.09 million dollars. Compared to a year ago, sales are down 27.4%, MOI is up 72.7% but average price is also up 14.3%. There seems to be some pluses and minuses to the Vancouver market, but for a more detailed look at the numbers, check out my video here:

Remember, we can’t control the markets, but we can control how we react to them. You need to know how to adapt to the changing markets in order to succeed, and chances are, you will need to change your tactics to do better than you did the year before.

Until then, make it count.