It's a wrap

Another year come and gone - The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB)announced that 2010 ended up as the third best year for existing home sales... it was however not a typical year following traditional patterns for sales.

Following is a brief synopsis of the year just passed.

The December 2010 Market Watch from TREB Revealed a balanced market at year end. Prices overall in 2010 were up 9% compared to 2009. However we began the year generally up 20%, compared to the lows from the recession and generally ended the year up about 5% compared to year earlier periods.

Sales volumes were very high in the first part of the year with very low inventories. Sales volumes then tailed of dramatically during the summer as a result of mortgage rule changes, consumer concerns about increasing mortgage rates and confusion over the HST.

As fall approached it became clear interest rates remained at historic lows, that the HST did not impact the cost of buying in any substantial way and buyers returned to the market. The inventory of available homes remained steady but did not increase dramatically provinding an overall foundation for the market. As a result most of the fall was a balanced market with prices moving sideways and were generally 5% higher than fall 2009. Properly prepared, priced and marketed properties continued to sell, however by year end the Average days on market had increased to 37 from the year earlier period of just 27 days. With multiple offer scenarior's being the exception rather than the rule Realtor's and Sellers had to adjust their expectations on what and how long it took for even the best properties to sell.

Overall 2010 was an excellent year for real estate and has established a sustainable trend for the year ahead. Next post i'll offer up my thoughts for the year ahead and why the next couple of months may be the ideal time to sell.

A new frontier

It's hard to believe it was 3 and half years ago when I was compared to Jean Luc Picard on a clients award winning blog piqueing my curiosity about this relatively new (to me) on-line format. Another client then went on to suggest while not the second coming, I could perhaps be Jesus Realtor when he did arrive... interesting and colourful... now how can I do that? Well Kate, it's taken a bit of time but that follow up lunch allowing me to pick your brain on this whole blogging thing may finally be paying off... but then i'll let others be the judge of that.

Welcome to Profile on Real Estate and my first Blog post. For the first 5 years of my Real Estate career my on-line prescence has largely been limited to my web site, and some speciality sites I've developed such as those promoting my First Time Buyer Seminars and First Time Seller Seminars. Of course I have also done a lot of on-line marketing via various sites for properties that I have listed for sale.

Today I take the first step in a new direction for connecting with a broader on-line community and those who are interested in Real Estate, and more importantly in the communities where we live, work and play. This blog will serve as a generalists hub about Real Estate and over time I seek to develop some off shoots that will be more area and neighbourhood specific.

So join up as a follower, post your questions, links, and intersting news and lets see where this new frontier takes us.