Pardon the language, but what the fuck is going on in our real estate market?
A report this week from BILD (Building and Land Development Association), based on research compiled by Altus Group, suggested the “benchmark price” for available, new single-family homes (in the GTA) was $1,229,454!
What?
The average price of a new single-family home in this city is one million … two hundred … twenty-nine thousand … four hundred … and fifty-four dollars!
By the way, that figure, according to BILD, is actually almost 20 per cent higher than the cost of a house just a year ago.
But what if you don’t happen to have nearly $1.5 million burning a hole in your pocket?
Well, I guess that means you will have to look to the condo market to house you and your family.
Unfortunately, that same press release mentioned the average condo price has risen an astounding 40 per cent from last year. So, an average condo will now set you back a cool $714,000.
Given these massive price jumps, is it any wonder that sales of single-family homes were down 53 per cent from last year, and condo sales were off year-over-year by 47 per cent.
Perhaps for obvious reasons, BILD is doing its best to sound the alarm about the latest figures. The Association’s CEO David Wilkes cites the anticipated population growth in the GTA (9.7 million additional people by 2041), before pointedly asking, “How are we going to house them?”
It’s a good question, David, but most of the people I know are asking a different question.
Theirs is a much more personal concern.
Oblivious to the housing needs of the population boom still to come, the people living and working in this city, today, and wanting to buy a home, today, are actually far more worried about how they will ever afford it.
That is the big concern — today.
More than a decade in the making, Toronto’s housing boom has been good for this city. It has sustained our local economy through recessionary times, provided badly needed revenue to government, generated significant (and occasionally gaudy) new levels of personal wealth, enhanced the city skyline … Among other benefits, it has created jobs.
It’s been a record-setting run.
Thanks to low interest rates, government policies, economic stability, robust immigration and a host of other factors, this has been a great ride.
But even the most thrilling carnival ride — one filled with speed and the delightful charge of a cocktail of adrenaline and endorphins — eventually slows down and comes to a stop. Once it ends, riders are left feeling a bit woozy, wandering around wondering what the fuck just happened.
In a market in which prices can jump in a year by 20 to 40 per cent and the dream of home ownership demands seven-figure investments, I’m thinking were nearing that point when we should all be asking “What the fuck?"
