These are questions I get asked all the time as a Realtor in the GTA and the answers aren't that simple, because nobody really knows what will happen in the next 12 months to 5 years.  I like to look at the numbers to see what type of real estate market we just came out of and what direction the market is currently trending toward. Yes the average price of real estate in the GTA did drop at the beginning of 2009 when the economic downturn hit the globe, but nobody saw that coming. By early 2010 the average sold price in the GTA was on the upward track, back to where it was before the recession. After the recession hit the Greater Toronto Real Estate market, the amount of homes listed on MLS far outweighed the amount of homes being sold; giving buyers more options to choose from and sellers more homes to compete against, making the market a buyers market. The buyers market changed towards late 2009/early 2010 when the GTA saw record highs in the number of "real estate sales transactions", but not the actual price of homes. Buyers who were hesitant to purchase a home when the recession first hit  in late 2008, took action in late 2009/early 2010 changing the market dynamics from a buyers market to a sellers market.  In the sellers market the number of real estate sales transactions relative to the number of listed properties on MLS were a lot tighter, meaning buyers had fewer options as the number of available homes on the market decreased. This usually drives prices up … [Read more...]