By Michael McCann
Summer has come to and end and we certainly experienced cooler temperatures than previous years.
In August my lawn actually was green and not brown for the first time that I can remember.
Those moderate temperatures seem to have also temporarily cooled our local housing market.
The first thing to note is there was a significant shortage of well priced houses for sale in Birchcliff/Cliffside in August. Buyers were actively looking but there was limited housing inventory to show them.
Bungalows are hot
What were the hot selling properties? It was detached bungalows, mostly under $425,000, as builders and first time buyers both saw their value.
Builders are ripping the roofs off and adding a second storey, while first time buyers see the opportunity to get into the housing market.
Of the 28 houses sold in August it seems 12 or 43% were bungalows. Due to their affordability there was an impact on the average sold price for the month.
This and one other factor were the key elements in our experiencing a less robust August market. I will come back to this in more detail, but here are our August numbers.
Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in August 2013 – 28 homes sold
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board all sold homes excludes commercial properties, condos and vacant land
Birchcliff/Cliffside
- August 2012 we had 27 homes sold while August of this year 28 homes changed hands – statistically the same
- August of 2012 the average sold price was $548,352 while August 2013 the average sold price came in at $545,572 – statistically the same
- August 2012 it took on average 20 days and in August it took only 18 days
Toronto Real Estate Board
- 6,249 sales in August 2012 with August 2013 showing 7,569 sales – Up by 21%
- $477,170 average selling price August 2012 with August 2013 coming in at $503,094 – Up by 5.5%
- August 2012 it took an average of 28 days to sell a home where August of this year 29 days – Again statistically the same
Canadian Real Estate Association
- August 2013 home sales were up by 11.1% from August of 2012
- The national average home sale price was up 8.1% year over year based in August
So why did Birchcliff/Cliffside sales buck the increases seen both in Toronto and nationally? The answer is that Toronto condominium sales were up 20% from last August and as most of us know there are not a lot of big condo developments in our little neighbourhood.
For a look at local real estate prices over the last six months, click on the tabs.
[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]July[/tabtext] [tabtext]June[/tabtext] [tabtext]May[/tabtext] [tabtext]April[/tabtext] [tabtext]March[/tabtext] [tabtext]February[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in July 2013 – 25 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in June 2013 – 22 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in May 2013 – 46 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in April 2013 – 45 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in March 2013 – 36 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birch Cliff – Cliffside Home Sales in February 2013 – 23 homes sold [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]
According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, our local housing market is defined as Birch Cliff/Cliffside and the boundaries can be seen below.
View Birch Cliff / Cliffside in a larger map
