As the baby boomer generation ages, we’re starting to see the first signs of this demographic interested in selling their family homes in exchange for single level condominium living. Many empty nesters have the same criteria:

- over 1300 sq ft
- significant outdoor space
- TTC within a 5 minute walk
- 2 bdrm plus den with 1 parking spot
- prefer not to have to do any renovations
- lots of natural light

You would think that there would be lots to choose from but not so. In particular, it’s hard to find a suite like this in a new building that’s not marketed and priced towards the luxury million dollar plus crowd. There are exclusive new construction options with suites that meet this criteria but most are priced over $700 per sq ft. By far, the hardest single criteria is having significant outdoor space to replace a garden or backyard. Most are reluctant to abandon their homes if they have to lose their own private outdoor oasis where they enjoy our short summers. The move to a condo will always require some sacrifices but it’s very nice to have an outdoor space large enough for a table and chairs where you can occasionally share a meal or grow some planters.

One great option is the following suite for sale which is 1417 sq ft with another 313 sq ft terrace. The building, West Harbour City, is less than 2 years old so it really is an oppourtunity to simply move in and enjoy. It has the highly sought after split 2 bdrm floorplan with a seperate den located on the North East corner of the building which gives lots of natural light. Most older buildings don’t have the ammenities that the newer buildings offer such as a 10,000 sq ft recreational facility with a pool, guest suites and party room. At $469 per sq ft, it’s very hard to beat this value.

For more details about this suite, please click here West Harbour City Condo For Sale.

Here is a video of the suite as well.

In December, the number of condos available for sale in the C01 district was down to 761 from 864 in November. The number of condos sold was down from the previous month to 259 from 355 for a ratio of 0.34. These numbers push us down slightly bordering between a Seller’s and balanced Market.

Another solid year for appreciation of condos in the GTA. Year over year we saw an increase of about 8.2% from December to December. If you had your condo 100% paid off, no mortgage… your investment would have grown by 8.2%. If it was 50% paid off, you would have seen a 16.4% return, 20% paid off would have seen a 41.1% return and 5% paid off would have seen a 164.5% return. The effect of leveraging your investment is pretty incredible. It also has the reverse impact as well though as someone that had 5% down would have lost 100% of their capital if the market had dropped by only 5%.

The median price for August was slightly down to $367,700 from the previous month’s $371,000. The average number of days on market for the month was up to 33 days from 29.

I get a lot of questions about wether we’re going to see lower prices this year. Seems like there are many news reports indicating we will. I don’t think we will. As long as you can get a mortgage for less than 3.5% or 4% and our employment rate stays healthy… I can’t imagine a significant or prolonged drop in prices. Looking at the last 7 years of growth in the chart below, we can see sharp increases in prices testing the limits at times but soon continuing upwards.



I don’t like predicting the market, but I realize our clients want our opinion and we try to base our opinions on statistics. So I think the above graph says a lot about our point of view on the current market and what we should expect this year.