Toronto Real Estate Prices See Big Growth In 2009

Canada was hit hard by a recession in 2008 and many experts did not see the country moving out of it for several years. Many called it the Great Recession, but it turns out that things may not have been so bad after all, at least in parts of the country like Toronto. In Toronto, the real estate market surged ahead so quickly in 2009 that it seems like there was barely a recession at all. Thanks to the housing market of Toronto and Vancouver, the entire Canadian economy grew, and the country began to move out of the recession.

 Housing prices have continued to rise throughout 2009, which is a big change from 2008. In October of 2008, housing prices fell by 35 percent over October of 2007. The average price in October 2008 was $377,000. This grew slightly to $379,000 in November but then the prices fell drastically in December to $300,200. By January the prices had begun to move back up to $365,000 and in February 2009 housing prices stood at $370,000, well below the levels they reached in the mid-2000s.

Then something amazing happened. People began to buy houses again and because there were so few sellers, housing prices shot up as more and more buyers tried to take advantage of the .25 percent interest rate, the lowest ever, from the Bank of Canada. By November, the average home price was $445,000, or $145,000 above what the average home price was only 11 months previously.

 This has been both good and bad. With less homes being built or sold in 2009, there were far too many buyers and that created bidding wars that drove up the prices of the homes. However, as the Toronto area moves into 2010, it is expected that the overall housing market will begin to even out. More homes are planned to be built in the beginning of 2010, and that will have more sellers to equal the number of buyers. As well, the Bank of Canada is expected to increase the record low interest rate in June of 2010. When this happens, there will be less people going to buy a home and that will cause a general easing in the real estate market. It is unlikely that housing prices will fall too much and most experts believe that the average home in the Toronto area will sell for about $400,000, which puts the city second only to Vancouver for home prices and sales.