The past week in Newmarket Real Estate (March 22, 2012 - March 29, 2012)

It's amazing what is happening here and hard to keep up with it.
In the past 7 days*, there have been 32 reported sales in Newmarket, ranging from $296,000 to $872,000, with an average of $504,522.

What I consider to be the most amazing sales figure is the percentage of list price. The average of the 32 homes sold in the past 7 days was 101.47% of asking! In one case, a property in the Leslie Valley/Huron heights area sold for 116% of asking @ $497,000, which was $68k over asking.

With the rapid sales, and what some are considering outrageous prices for homes in areas that do not normally achieve such premiums, I am a little concerned about buyers purchasing homes that have less than 25% down, because a more thorough appraisal might have to be done and if the banks loan-value ratios don't match what the buyer offered to pay, then, the buyers will be required to come up with more money to close the deal... As a Realtor working for sellers, I will be ensuring I get a hefty deposit so that the buyers have no option to not close.

I want to close though with this. Newmarket/Aurora is a fantastic place to live and the buyers seem to be coming from the south, likely due to the prices being cheaper than Toronto/Richmond Hill/Vaughan, and as long as the immigration and population figures continue to grow, I'm not sure we will see a drastic drop in the prices... The demand seems to be there, and the option of renting just doesn't seem to be a better choice right now.

*as reported at 12:05pm March 29, 2012

The past 10 days in Newmarket Real Estate

The past 10 days have been very active for home sales in Newmarket. The Toronto real Estate Board (TREB) has reported 45 homes sold in Newmarket, ranging from a 3 bedroom semi with a basement apartment for $311,000 ($11,100 over the $299,900 asking price) all the way up to a near 3/4 acre 4-bedroom Estate home which sold for $1,310,000.

The amazing part of all this is that the time at which it is taking to sell these properties. The median (the number in the middle of all the numbers) days on market was 10 days, while the Mode ( The mode is the number that is repeated most often ) was 7. What this means is that the majority of homes are selling fast! It's a great time to be a seller, provided you price your property with the market. The lack of inventory, so far this year, has really started the market off to a record breaking start. The Average price in February 2012 was $445,799, compared to the $392,892 in February 2011!

It's a different story if you are a buyer right now though as you may have to get your self into competition over a property with other buyers. The average sale price has been 99.39% of asking, while the highest percentage of list in  the past 10 days was 108%!!!

Buyers and agents need to be educated on values, but also should be careful not to offer more than a home is really worth. For buyers who require high ratio financing you need to remember that a lender must still approve not only you, but ensure the home is worth what you are paying for it. If a home does not appraise out for what you are offering, you could get into a very sticky situation if you remove your financing condition before the bank appraises the property.

It's hard to say which way our local market is going, but from what I can see, it looks like there are more and more buyers moving north from southern communities based on a lot of the buyers agents office locations... Being a very nice and tidy community in the northern GTA that has some of the most "affordable" real estate prices must have a lot to do with it.

*All the data provided came from a search of sales on TREB of Residential sales that were reported within the past 10 days. For more info on Mode/Median/Average