Brian O'Donoghue

The Holiday Season is upon us, and we have almost made it to the end of one of the most challenging years any of us can remember. When we felt we could control so little, we at least needed to control our space. Our homes have become our refuges, as we spend more time there. We’ve adapted our homes to be our offices and our schools, our restaurants and retreats. We’ve started to think more deeply about what home means and how to create it. 

After briefly being put on hold during the outbreak this spring, Canada’s housing market has seen record-breaking growth since the summer. Record-low interest rates and strong demand for more spacious accommodation are pushing prices and sales to near record highs. It will be a photo finish, but it’s looking like 2020 will be a record year for home sales in Canada. And, as we look forward to the new year, 2021 looks like it could be shaping up to be another unprecedented year, based on new housing market predictions. The strength of demand, particularly for larger single-family homes, will drive the average price higher as buyers compete for the most desirable properties. 

Have we ever been more primed to say “so long” to one year and welcome in a new one? Although things are still far from perfect, we’re feeling a renewed sense of hope for the future with the turning of the calendar page and looking forward to setting the reset button on life. It will be a holiday season unlike any we have known before, but it is still a time to celebrate those we cherish, even if it’s not how we did it last year. If there are any positive takeaways, it’s having time to pause and feel gratitude, as well as having a deeper appreciation for home, our greatest place of comfort. Let’s raise a toast to one another and to our hopes for the new year to come.

November brought a sense of urgency to the Toronto real estate market, where Covid has people buying and selling homes for completely different reasons than before the pandemic. Data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board showed that November home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were up 24.3% compared with last year, as demand for single-family homes continued to surge ahead of condos.

There were 8,766 homes sold in November up from 7,054 in November 2019. The average sale price is $955,615, up 13.3% from $843,307 a year earlier. 11,545 homes were listed for sale in November, up from 8,651 in November of last year, as the market catches up from spring’s slowdown. While detached home prices rose to an average of $1,202,281, up 15.2% from November 2019, average condo prices fell 2% to $605,863. The number of condos that hit the market this November was almost double that of November of last year. There has been a total of 150,913 listings in the Toronto area so far this year, compared with 149,241 at this time last year.

But regardless, our inventory is still low. The search for more living space continues to take buyers to the suburbs and beyond. In the suburban areas, we are still seeing bidding wars. It’s highly competitive and properties are not sitting long. Several Canadian economists recently surveyed believe that record low interest rates have been keeping buyers interested and prices high in Canadian real estate. With low inventory and growing demand, they expect that housing values in Canada’s largest markets could see a 5% increase in 2021. The conclusion is that home and work will become entwined more intimately in the future and that living space needs to be reviewed to accommodate such a future.