Don’t look now but Summer ’09 only has about one month left. I know it feels as though it just started but I suppose we can blame Mother Nature for that. That being said, autumn isn’t necessarily all gloom and doom, at least for many of us considering a real estate purchase.
Summer 2009 has been, to say the least, surprising. No one expected the market to pick up the way it did down the stretch. For the first time in quite some time the demand was actually significantly higher than supply.
The result was numerous bidding wars, properties selling for above market value, but for reasons not entirely similar to those we’ve grown accustomed to. It’s important to understand that “above market value” is a relative term. While properties may have sold for above current recessionary values, in most cases, they rose to compete with the highest values of 2007. In other words, those purchasers who settled at list price or higher did not necessarily over pay.
So what does autumn bring? Well, the normal course of action from September onwards is for the number of properties on the market to decrease alongside the number of potential buyers. Here’s where the biggest difference will likely occur, this year. When it comes to the housing market I expect the trend to remain fairly consistent. The main reason for this is the housing market, to a large extent, is comprised of families with school children. Invariably, this contributes to both supply and demand falling during the colder months and when the kiddies are in school.
On the condo front, however, Summer 2009 has left many buyers jaded with that sudden uppercut of an upswing and I expect many of them to continue searching with earnest throughout September and October, and perhaps even toward the holiday season. It is the mindset of many that prices will come down and great deals will be available once again as summer becomes a memory, and this will likely sustain a healthy level of demand throughout 2009’s final four months. Now the optimistic side of the coin will tell you that this will encourage more owners to put their condos up for sale during fall and winter thereby levelling the balance and stabilizing the purchase of real estate in this city.
August has remained fairly consistent with the rest of spring/summer 2009 in terms of available properties, which leads me to believe that the coming months promise a unique ratio of buyers to sellers, in the condo market, specifically.
For condos, fall 2009 doesn’t come with the same “guarantees” of autumns past. If you’re dabbling in the housing market this fall/winter on the other hand, I believe Fall 2009 will begin to show signs of stabilization.
– Amit is a Realtor/Developer with Re/Max. amitp@rogers.com
