Monday, June 22, 2009

Real Estate Statistics 101

Mr. Don Lawby, President of CENTURY 21 Canada recently published a white paper titled Real Estate Statistics 101: What every Canadian homeowner should know about home price statistics. The objective of this White Paper is to help homeowners understand the relationship between widely reported real estate statistics and the value of their homes

Here are some of the excerpts from this white paper that are relevant to Greater Toronto Area. To read the report in its entirety, contact me and I will email it to you.

Media reports of real estate statistics have left many Canadian homeowners rightfully confused. The problem is that these statistics are usually based on averages of city,provincial and national markets. Such averages are pretty much irrelevant to what’s really happening in specific neighbourhoods.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reports that the average home price in May 2009 was $395,609 for all transactions (single and detached homes, condo apartments and condo townhouses) in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The GTA is the country’s most populous urban concentration bounded by Lake Ontario on the south, Lake Simcoe on the north,Burlington on the west, and Newcastle on the east.

This average price has little relevance to prices in the specific neighbourhoods and communities in the GTA, where prices for single detached homes ranged from $1.53million in the Toronto neighbourhood between St. Clair Avenue and Bloor Street east of Bayview Avenue; to $709,000 in a rural neighbourhood east of Newmarket; to $255,000 in Oshawa.

Getting an accurate value of your home

So, the question remains: How does a Canadian homeowner determine the value of his or her existing home? Or how does a buyer determine the value of a prospective purchase?
Most relevant are surveys of recent selling prices of similar homes on the same street or in the same neighbourhoods.

That said, it is difficult for homeowners to do their own surveys because listing prices — not selling prices — are available to the general public on the local MLS. The best course is to ask a REALTOR of your choice to show you statistics of selling prices of homes similar to yours in your neighbourhood. You will incur no obligation and, depending on your evaluation of the statistics you are shown, you will have a head start on your search for a realtor should you decide to sell your home.

CENTURY 21 Canada home price surveys

CENTURY 21 Canada produces home price surveys to provide useful and relevant information to homeowners. These surveys monitor prices of homes that are typical inspecific neighbourhoods in major markets across the country. On June 11, 2009, CENTURY 21 published a survey of the Hottest Neighbourhoods in Canada. Contact me today to get his report.