I hope this message finds you well. As I pen this, today is November 11th. While Remembrance Day services are smaller than in previous years, this does not minimize the many who sacrificed their lives to protect our country. We honour our veterans and those in active service.
The leaves are mostly off the trees and brilliant yellow, orange and red hues cover our lawns. Meanwhile, real estate prices continue to increase especially in the freehold market (you will need to download images to see the table below).
The condominium apartment market continues to see softness as sales declined amidst a significant increase in supply. A large part of the decline in sales volumes is due to weak investor demand as outlined in last month’s newsletter.
October’s weak sales volumes for condo apartments translates into 4 months of inventory – 2.5x than the average of 1.5 months of inventory in 2019’s strong condo market. Despite the gloom and doom predicted for high rise living, the average sales price is on par for the same period in 2019. The following graph provides a clearer picture that condominium prices have been resilient and considerably higher than previous years.
In terms of opportunities, I feel that the economy will improve as job movement and immigration returns to Toronto. As the price gap widens between the hot freehold market and stalled condo market, affordability will bring buyers back to the condo market. Therefore, now is a good time for buyers of condos for personal use to act as there is ample choice and mortgage rates are favourable.
Shen Shoots the Breeze
I love shopping – much to my husband’s chagrin. Every November, I am very excited to attend the One of A Kind Show (“OOAK”) at the Enercare Centre on the CNE grounds. For those who are not familiar with this show: it is one of the largest and best-attended craft shows in Toronto (and probably Canada). The show spans about 10 days, featuring unique handmade crafts many which are locally made. With the pandemic, there won’t be any in-person show this year. The OOAK switched to an online format. If you are looking for some Christmas gifts, here are some of my favourites: Tealish for their Chocolate Mint and Lemon Meringue teas, Chocolat de Kat for their wildly delicious and avant garde truffles like Yuzu Caramel (need I say more?), Cranberry Creek for their cranberry chocolate pudding with super addicting BUTTER sauce. I love the handbags from Flechr and own 2 of them: the Chloe and the Lola. Not at the OOAK, but you may also want to check out: Vanilla and Spice for handmade vanilla extract and Consonant Skincare for really, really great facial serum. Happy shopping!
In my line of work, I get to see a lot of people’s closets. Whenever I’m doing a staging consultation, I’m probably one of the few people who sees every aspect of an owner’s home – down to their medicine cabinets. I admire those who are super organized and can keep their closets neat and decluttered. Note, there are very few of you out there and I have come to realize that this is a God-given talent; so don’t feel bad if you are not one of these individuals. For those who may think I am one of them, I am not; however, I strive to be. During the pandemic, I took over the dining room table as we don’t plan to host guests for a while and this table that normally seats 10 people is covered with paper. I would love to hear your tips on how you keep your home neat and organized. In our line of business, we deal with a lot of paper. A tip I learned several years ago is to deal with your mail right away, open them, throw away what you don’t need. Invest in a paper shredder so you can shred items with your name and address immediately and put the bills in one box and the stuff that needs to be filed in another box. Another thing I picked up when working at Grace Toronto Church, a cloud-based application called Workflowy. I still use it every day to make lists with reminders and due dates. I categorize them by projects, weeks, dates. You can even add hashtags for future reminders like: #nov12 send out monthly newsletter!
Photo by mwangi gatheca on Unsplash