Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Should you sell now while the market is high or wait for your price to increase more?

Should you sell now while the market is high or wait for your price to increase more?

To get an idea on the prices in Oakville and Mississauga or anywhere in the GTA, but you can always search anywhere in Canada using http://www.mls.ca/ and it's got a pretty cool map function to use so you can see where you are searching and the number of listings.

I've been suggesting to my clients who have been thinking of selling this year to "get your home on the market pronto"

I feel we are near the end of the current real estate cycle and possibly near the edge. I say this because I have noticed the there are clearly more listings on the market now compared to even a month ago.
Although we are currently at the 'historically speaking' height of the yearly cycle, this indicates to me that the market is softening a little.

I know from past experience it does not take much to slow our market and when it does, it can be sudden.

See annual cycles here:
<http://www.mississauga4sale.com/TREBavg1995date.htm and the large graph
here: <http://www.mississauga4sale.com/avgprice1995todate.jpg

I read an article yesterday that the Bank of Canada may consider raising the bank prime before the initially scheduled, if this happens it could create that 'sudden' feeling in the market and things could slow down.

As you know, perception not only becomes reality, but perception IS reality and if people "think" the HST and increased mortgage rates will slow our market - then when those two things happen, our market will likely slow.

Of course, the market may just continue to cycle each year as it has for the past 15 years, up in the spring, down in the summer, up in the fall, down in the winter BUT each year the market will creep up overall about 5%

So, on average, if you wait another year, the average price of a home in the GTA will likely rise about $25,000 increase year over year, all things being equal, but if the market softens your $500,000 house can easily drop to $425,000 and stay there for a while. We have seen this in hte past:
http://www.mississauga4sale.com/TREBprice.htm#last_recession

The decision is yours, enjoy!

Mark

2 comments:

  1. Mark,

    Why all of the sudden change? There is little doubt in my mind that last year and early this year the market "phantomed" sales from the future.

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  2. When you say "why all of the sudden change?" - which comment of mine are you referring to?

    Also, I don't understand what you mean by phantomed sales, phantom means fake, can you explain?

    Thanks
    Mark

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