Interest is still in the market!

As the Spring real estate market begins to open up, I see some conflicting signs about the health of local real estate.

On the one hand, on behalf of buyer clients, just the other evening, I was presenting an offer that was 5th of 7 registered on a Scarborough home. Interest was incredible as in the days preceding the offer presentation, people seemed to be swarming over it like ants on a doughnut. The listing agent told me that they had been averaging 8-10 showings per day since it went on the market!

I've heard some similar stories from colleagues; how interest in certain geographical pockets is as strong as ever, if not even more, as bargain hunters appear to be on the loose with record-low financing rates.

Yet, on the other hand, we have the latest TREB statistics released for February now, which indicates that home sales have fallen 33% over the previous February.
Here's a recent article from The Star's site. http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/597391.
The average selling price was down 5% from last year to $361,305.

With prices cooling off a bit and interest rates at record lows, it really is an amazingly good time to be shopping for a house.

First time buyers get a break on both the City of Toronto and provincial Land Transfer Taxes and sellers are much more willing to actually negotiate than in recent years.

And still, like always, the best homes at the best prices are going fast.
It's that old analogy from the grocery store.

If you're buying apples, you peruse what's available, pick through them and at that price, you pick the best looking, shiniest apples and skip the rest.
The following shoppers look over what's left and if there's nothing that interests them at that price, they pass and wait for either the produce manager to lower the price for the lower quality apples that remain, or they wait for new apples to hit the market and start picking through them all over again.

The housing market is no different.