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This week, there’s panic because people don’t really know what they should be doing Rodrigo Pineros, real estate agent

Janet (not her real name), a 33-year-old living in a two bedroom condominium in downtown Toronto had been hoping to upgrade to a home, partly relying on investments in her TFSA. But the market crash has severely disrupted her plans of upgrading — she told the Post she had lost about $14,000 that she was counting on for a downpayment.

“I’m just going to have to wait it out, unless home prices drop. So I’m just not sure,” she said.

Housing prices in major urban centres, but particularly Toronto, have been escalating dramatically since January due to a combination of low supply and sky-high demand. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, sales in February 2020 were up 46 per cent from a year earlier, and prices were up 17 per cent.

Pasalis said he had heard anecdotal accounts of homes in Toronto selling within a day for up to 40 per cent more than their listed price after receiving a frenzy of overpriced offers.

He predicts that if an increasing number of people get ill, or know friends and family who are ill and abide by strict self-quarantine measures for the next few weeks, the number of offers on homes would dramatically decline.

“You’re just not going to have as many people going out there for open houses. If right now homes are getting 10 or 15 or 8 offers, we will start seeing one offer or no offers at all,” he said.

At least for now, TREB’s chief housing market analyst Jason Mercer is not changing his March housing forecast, which predicts higher prices for single-family homes and condominiums. But, he is closely eyeing housing market activity in the second half of March, which he says will provide an “important benchmark against which to reassess market conditions.”

RBC’s Hogue says it might take a few days for buyers and sellers to adjust to the new reality of a pandemic and potential recession. “I don’t think it has sunk it quite yet. But I know every forecaster out there is working the numbers and I can guarantee you when these forecasts come out, (prices) are not going to go higher,” he said.

Financial Post

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