With summer disappearing into the distance and the fall fast upon us, homeowners aiming to sell in the next few months have an excellent opportunity to exploit the change of seasons. While there is never a wrong time of year to sell a property, the cozy days of fall and winter can work if you stage your property correctly. A great way to prepare your home for sale is to dress it appropriately for the season.  For fall, a range of earthy tones will give your home a wonderful feeling of warmth to lure prospective buyers. If you are preparing to put your home on the market in the next month or two, whether it's an apartment, condo or detached residence, here are few tips to help you embrace the tones, textures and smells of the season. 

Put some fall décor outside your home like few pumpkins, Fall Wreath on your door, hay bales and pumpkin topiaries etc.

While too many fall decorations will take focus off your home and its best features, a few tasteful accents can create an inviting setting and make your home feel in tone with the season. 

The days get shorter during the fall season, so adequate lighting is essential if you want to highlight your home's best features. Let in as much natural light as possible by opening your blinds, and place plenty of lamps throughout your home for additional illumination. While light is important, avoid making it over bright as that takes away coziness of the fall. 

As the weather cools down, a warm and cozy atmosphere will encourage potential homebuyers to stick around during showings, giving them more time to admire your home. Accentuate your sofas and chairs with throw pillows and plush throws. Natural fabrics in unique artisan patterns complement the seasonal look-and-feel without overpowering your home. Consider hanging a woven rug on a feature wall. It will add warmth to the room, and you can match it to the floor rug and throw cushions. 

Lastly, nothing says fall like the pleasing aromas of pumpkin, apples and cinnamon. Before showing your home, burn a cinnamon or pumpkin spice scented candle or simmer a pot of apple cider on the stove with a stick of cinnamon thrown in. You can also leave few slices of Danish or Pumpkin spiced cookies for buyers to enjoy. 

Remember, more they stay in your home, more they’ll connect and be willing to consider your home as their next home! 

Call me @ 416-738-7331 to get your free home appraisal. We offer very competitive listing packages. 

If any of your friends or family is looking to move, I hope you’ll feel comfortable giving them my name. As you know, I build my business on referrals and, therefore, genuinely appreciate valued clients recommending me.

And it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway!), I’ll give the red-carpet treatment to anyone you send my way.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Canadians are understandably hesitant to engage in the market currently and as per an annual forecast from Remax, trend will remain the same in balance of 2023. As compared to 49% in 2021, current report reveals that 73% Canadians still see real estate as a solid long-term investment. In sharp contrast to 2022, most regions analyzed in the report will experience more balanced conditions in 2023. Also, another report from RE/MAX Canada reveals that homeowners are well-positioned to ride out the coming storm in large part due to lower loan-to-value ratios on new mortgages. Three factors were largely responsible for the downward pressure on loan-to-value ratios over the past decade: equity gains, the pandemic facilitating the ability to work remotely in smaller markets, and the transfer of intergenerational wealth, particularly in the latter half of the last decade and the early 2020s.

New construction projects are expected to get delayed because of the widening gap between market prices and construction costs, including the impact that higher interest rates have had on financing these projects. Overall, average residential sale price in the GTA is expected to decrease in 2023 by 11-12% as per this Remax report. However, majority of this hit will be taken by luxury market of 2.5 million plus range, which will continue to cool in 2023 due to economic pressures and affordability issues which will discourage prospective homeowners looking to upgrade. This in turn will negatively effect entry level housing supply as lesser Seller’s will be selling. So, range of housing costing around 1 Million mark is expected to see a positive growth due to higher demand then supply available.

Lately, GTA Real estate market is bit stable at start of 2023 with reasonable balance between buyers and sellers in market. Reasonably priced Inventory of homes & condos is moving fast with lesser inventory in market which is over 30 days old. Most of the stagnated ones are due to overpricing issue; as still many sellers are not able to adjust to demand of this new market. Having too many or big price changes is also not a good strategy from sellers prospective as it communicates to Buyer that Seller is getting desperate; resulting in a low ball offer, which most of the times just leads to a wasted opportunity. Pricing it right from beginning after doing a 30-60 days comparative market analysis to help derive the true current value. 

Experienced Real estate broker can help both buyers and sellers setup right expectations based on current market, property condition, pricing and competition. All these factors mostly vary in every real estate transaction. Call me directly @ 416-738-7331 if you are planning to Buy or Sell or even if you’ve any general question related to southern Ontario real estate. I’m your real estate resource with 15+ Years of firsthand experience and local market knowledge you can tap into with just one phone call.

2022 Real Estate Market Outlook for Southern Ontario

According to the RE/MAX broker network in Ontario, market activity across the province is anticipated to remain steady in 2022, with continued average price growth, although at widely varying degrees. RE/MAX brokers anticipate average sale price increases in Muskoka (20 per cent), Barrie(15 per cent), Niagara(14 per cent), Hamilton(16 per cent), where the move-over trend has remained strong. Meanwhile, in larger markets within the province, there’s a possibility that more immigration could weigh on supply levels and prices, including Durham (7 per cent); Brampton (8 per cent); Toronto (10 per cent); Mississauga (14 per cent), Oakville (7.5 per cent), Burlington(17 per cent).

When it comes to price appreciation year-over-year, there are a few regions that stood out in 2021 for their exponential increases across all property types, including Brampton, which rose from $869,107 in 2020 to $1,085,417 in 2021 (25 per cent); Durham from $706,818 in 2020 to $914,48 in 2021 (29 per cent); and London from $487,500 in 2020 to $633,700 in 2021 (30 per cent), Kitchener/Waterloo from $612,629 in 2020 to $785,607 in 2021 (28 per cent). In comparison, Toronto experienced a modest seven-per-cent increase year-over-year ($986,085 in 2020 to $1,054,922 in 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic supercharged a market that already favoured sellers. With available listings hitting a record 14-year low before the pandemic, it is no wonder that housing prices have soared upward, with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) forecasting the national average home price would rise a whopping 19.9 per cent on an annual basis to $690,000 in 2021. Low interest rates, economic support and lockdowns that drastically shifted the consumer appetite, contributed to a sharp increase in demand and consequently, price growth across virtually every market in Canada.

But did these changes cause real estate prices to become overvalued? According to Moody’s Analytics, a leading credit rating agency, this is most certainly the case. The firm’s forecasting model believes that real estate markets are overvalued by up to 91 per cent across Canada, with a 22.59-per-cent average in urban markets. The good news: despite this label, Moody’s is not expecting the bubble to burst, causing a housing crash. So, we can all let out a collective “phew”!

Can Higher Mortgage Rates Create a Dip?

Because of high inflation, the Federal Reserve will taper its purchase of mortgage-backed securities faster than originally planned. The program, which was put in place at the beginning of the pandemic, has resulted in the ultra-low mortgage rates over the past year and a half. Given the situation, they are expected to do 2 to 3 quarter point increases in 2022.

As per Moody’s Analytics, though real estate prices are overvalued, there is no expectation those prices are going to fall. Expectations are that higher mortgage rates will flatten the growth. As mortgage rates rise, their model is showing low to no price growth. Moody’s predicts that urban housing prices will rise 2.63 per cent from Q4 2021 to Q3 2022.

Let’s explore price trends, according to Moody’s in Southern Ontario:

The Toronto Real Estate Market

The Toronto housing market is overvalued by almost 40 per cent in Q2 2021, nearly double the national average. With no crash on the horizon, the numbers are forecast to hold steady in the coming years, with a growth of 0.86 per cent in 2022, followed by 0.05 per cent, Moody’s says. It’s bad news for anyone hoping the prices could dip to more affordable levels, but those who are looking to sell a Toronto property in the coming year can expect to enjoy the same generous profits as sellers in 2021.

The Most Overvalued Housing Markets Are All in Southern Ontario!

Neither Toronto nor Vancouver can lay claim to the most overvalued market in Canada; that honour belongs to Niagara. The Niagara area, including St. Catherine’s, is an astonishing 90.8 per cent above trends in Q2 2021, per Moody’s. There are small dips expected, but they are minor corrections in comparison to these massive gains.

Joining the Niagara real estate market near the top of the leaderboard of overvalued markets are Peterborough, Windsor, Hamilton and London.

What is federal Government planning to do?

Canada's federal government plans to take a tougher stand on investment properties by reviewing rules around down payments and policies to curb "excessive profits." As well as discouraging foreign investors from holding on to vacant homes and ban on blind bidding.

Overall, on one end where Remax report is sounding quite optimistic and Moody’s report is bit pessimistic about real estate trends expected in 2022. Basic fact remain that it is a game of demand and supply. Final Mortgage rate increases, Actual Omnicorn impact and which government measures get implemented in first quarter of 2022 will set the pace for balance of the year.  

Sources:

• https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2021/10-canada-housing-market-outlook.pdf
• https://www.crea.ca/housing-market-stats/quarterly-forecasts/
• https://blog.remax.ca/re-max-expects-canadian-real-estate-prices-to-rise-9-2-in-2022/

With this prolonged 2020 pandemic, most economists were anticipating adverse effects on Canadian real estate market including for 2021 but as the year is unfolding, it is rather turning out to be opposite. There is excess demand among buyers and limited supply to go around. Deflating interest rates would be partly to blame for this.

Nevertheless, here are some emerging trends we see present in the 2021 Real Estate market:

#1: People moving from major cities to smaller suburbs

COVID-19 has changed how we work, learn and play. People are realizing they don’t need to live near their office/workplaces - they have begun eyeing properties outside major cities. This move from cities to suburbs/smaller cities is expected to continue, even post-pandemic.

Industry experts were divided on where they believed people would want to live in the next five years, even once this pandemic is behind us. A significant number and multiple reports are predicting that outlook has already changed, and people are finding more value in Suburban housing. However, immigration is expected to maintain urban population growth in Greater Toronto area.

According to the report, the Conference Board of Canada sees people leaving Canada’s biggest urban centres – Toronto and Montreal – over the next three years, while international migration is expected to maintain urban population growth. The Government of Canada has already announced a commitment to increase immigration to 400,000 a year over the next three years.

#2: Strong single-family demand expected to continue

Older millennials are having a huge influence on single-family housing demand — a trend seen over the course of 2020 and one that is expected to continue this year. Due to low-interest rates and more affordable pricing in suburban areas, millennials have begun transitioning to townhouses, semi's and detached homes outside of the downtown core that accommodates the growth of their families and their need for more personal & work space. This is creating abonormal compeition between buyers to acquire freeholds inside as well as outside urban areas. This trend is also inflating prices for residential zoned vacant lands, which many are acquiring to built their own custom homes. 

#3: The desire for living space, quality and flexibility

In March 2020, the move to remote work happened pretty much overnight. Within days, workers found themselves sharing cramped quarters with family members while still trying to do complex tasks requiring quiet and focus. Given that working from home is a long-term reality for many, people want larger living spaces with separate, quiet areas to work and study. People want more outdoor space as well.

In condos, look for developers to start offering common spaces to work, videoconferencing rooms, dedicated areas for parcel and grocery deliveries, improved amenities and tools to create more connected communities. With many of us working and learning from home, we will continue finding ways to establish individual spaces to plan, hold online meetings and concentrate on projects.