The Price and The Prize.

Like the Buyers and Sellers of Toronto Real Estate this bear cub is discombobulated.

Another rate hike is coming. Listings are few. The berries are sparse.

He’s searching for berries on an island where he’s never ventured as there are no berries to be found closer to shore.  The mother bear snuffs and snorts and the brother cub scratches the ground with curiosity and long claws. Winter is coming and they all have needs. How fat can they get? Where will they settle down?

In real estate this sounds familiar. How big are our savings and where will we live. In housing there is a lack of supply and loads of demand, but who will pay the price? What price is too high? Which island is so far from shore and interest rate so high that it causes peril. What if I pay too much? Buyers know that there could be another bank rate increase in October. This may further slow the housing market and prices may fall.

However, the fundamentals are the same. Winter will come and the bear needs to get fat.  It will. Ontario is short of housing and people need a place to live.  They will decide. Post covid immigration increases will happen.  Toronto housing demand is high, and buyers will return in force.

If you are fortunate enough to find a house that suits you in this marketplace and you buy now you run the risk of having paid too much, but for how long and under what measure.  Once purchased you have a place to live and if you intend to stay in Toronto the market will return and surpass your purchase price.

Will we suffer world events that put us into a crippling 10-year decrease in housing prices from which a 2022 buyer needs to recover?  Given everything Canada and Toronto have to offer from democracy to healthcare, from gas to wheat to water and some would say hockey…it seems unlikely. We seem to be in one of the most bountiful places in the world.

Is prosperity certain? No.  But was it ever?

The bear and his family found a few plump berries on this outpost island. There are a few excellent houses on the market at comparably manageable prices. Anecdotally speaking, in the past 7 days I’ve seen and heard of many more buyers out sniffing.

What does this mean to your house search?