Quiet week in real estate… the market is eerily quiet. Showings on listings have drastically slowed down, real estate lawyers have noticed that their real estate business is quiet. Is this a temporary lull or is this a sign of more to come.

Today the Bank of Canada has opted not to raise interest rates. This is a good sign as it doesn’t look like we need more bad news.

The truth is that the market will never be completely inactive. People will still get married and have babies, people will die, people will get divorced, people will overextend. Homes and condos will still be bought and sold. Level of activity may drop and prices may soften but life will continue.

Desire to live out of the city does not appear to be waning. With the world slowly opening up, outlook on life has changed for many. Those able to work remotely and who had places to work out of the city opted to work there for extended periods of time. A good number decided that they actually liked it and preferred living in country serenity with outdoor activities –  therapeutic for those with stressful jobs. Hence popular areas like Collingwood/Thornbury continue to see growth and increasing prices. That doesn’t appear to be ending. The world has definitely changed. Hopefully those quiet country oasis continue to be just that.

Income properties continue to be popular and it looks like investors will take very low cap rates.

Looking at the price of real estate in Toronto it’s no wonder that investors are looking at any way possible to own it and have someone else pay part of the carrying costs.

From a return on investment perspective it appears that the numbers don’t make that much sense but the real estate/land itself is escalating quickly. It looks like rents, which were somewhat flat during the pandemic are on the rebound. This makes owning an income property somewhat high demand and prices are up. Good income properties in central neighbourhoods are hard to find. There are very few that go to market.