Hot market cooling off

By Michael McCann

This year was one of the busiest spring housing markets which I can remember. However like any cycle it looks like this one is starting to wane.

At one point every seller’s strategy was to hold back considering offers for a week in order to maximize the potential for multiple offers.

Well, it seems buyers have gotten to a point where they are now willing to sit back and avoid inserting themselves into a free-for-all bidding war.

You can see a trend in that the days on market are stretching a little longer as well as there’s a slight softening of the average sold price than what we experienced in April.

In saying this, Birchcliff’s days on market are less than what the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is reporting and our average sold price is up almost 6% over last May.

Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in May 2014 – 43 homes sold

Source: Toronto Real Estate Board. Excludes commercial properties, condos and vacant land.

Birchcliff/Cliffside

May 2013 we had 46 homes sold while in May 2014 43 homes changed hands – down 6.5 percent
May of 2013 the average sold price was $557,721 while in May 2014 the average sold price came in at $589,704 – an increase of 5.7 percent
May 2013 it took on average 10 days and in May 2014 homes in Birchcliff were taking 17 days to sell

Toronto Real Estate Board

9,946 sales in May 2013 with May 2014 showing 11,079 sales – up 11.4%
$540,544 average selling price May 2013 with May 2014 coming in at $585,204 – up 8.3%
May 2013 it took an average of 23 days to sell a home where May 2014 21 days down 8.7%

I don’t have a crystal ball, however it’s funny that last month I predicted buyers may think of deferring their house search and it seems to have rung true.

Homes do sell in the summer months but here are two things you should be aware of if you hope to be successful:

Sellers who listed in the spring at an overinflated list price will be forced into a reality check if they expect to re-engage buyers.
The summer can be a great time to sell as those buyers out there are serious about making a deal but only for those sellers who realistically price their homes.

For a look at house prices over the last six months, click on the tabs.

[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]April[/tabtext] [tabtext]March[/tabtext] [tabtext]February[/tabtext] [tabtext]January[/tabtext] [tabtext]December[/tabtext] [tabtext]November[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in April 2014 – 37 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in March 2014 – 42 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in Feb. 2014 – 23 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in January 2014 – 15 homes sold [/tab] [tab]December Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in December 2013 – 17 homes sold [/tab] [tab]Birchcliff – Cliffside Home Sales in November 2013 – 30 homes sold [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]