Real Estate in Toronto, Real Estate Recovery in Toronto - Canada July 2009

Toronto Real Estate report on trends

Though long overshadowed by the likes of Rosedale and the Annex, homes in more modest Toronto neighbourhoods such as Downsview-Weston and Pickering appreciated the most the in the first half of 2009. They defied a trend in which homes in all but handful of real estate districts depreciated, some in double-digit proportions.

Though average sale prices increased the most in the Beaches, where the cost of a single family detached home was up 3.79 per cent in the first six months of this year compared to the same time in 2008 ($715,422, up from $689,278) , Pickering was close behind with an average sale price increase of 3.72 per cent ($389,536, up from $375,577).

Average sale prices were up 3.32 per cent in Willowdale-Newtonbrook where they rose from $754,470 to $779,537.

In Downsview-Weston, which overlaps 12 Division, where gang activity has caused homicide rates to climb, the average price of homes climbed 2.25 per cent to $384,485 from $376,007.
The data were collected by the Toronto Real Estate Board and compiled by RE/MAX.

"People are looking for opportunity in the city," said Michael Polzler, executive vice-president of RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. "Places like the Annex, for example, which I think has done not-so-great this year, those areas have already been pushed up in price... You're just not going to see the big appreciations there."

Average sale prices were down the most in the downtown east and in North Pickering but both areas posted only about a dozen sales, so the sample size may be too small to draw any conclusions.

In the Mississauga-Clarkson district average prices were down 15.94 per cent to $683,568 from $813,227, and in the Birchmount Park-Cliffside district prices were down 13.57 per cent, to $377,248 from $436,491.

Jason Mercer, TREB's senior manager of market research, said that without details regarding the size and characteristics of the homes that were sold conclusions are hard to draw.

He said that the recent tightening of housing market conditions may have ignited some changes.
"As the market changes over time, people do shift their attention to different neighbourhoods," he said.