(Ontario Real Estate Source)
By Brian Madigan LL.B.
What kind of sales volumes took place in 2010? How does it compare?
If you are going to claim that 2009 was the greatest year for sales ever, we will have to have something to compare it to.
Let’s look at the sales volumes for single family homes in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) over the last 7 years:
83,501……….2004
84,145……….2005
83,084……….2006
83,264……….2007
76,414……….2008
89,273……….2009
88,209……….2010
The average number of sales would be 83,984. There was a world wide recession in 2008 and an economic recovery in 2009.
You will notice that the numbers in those two years are skewed somewhat. 2008 is the lowest and 2009 is the highest. These two years average out to 82,844 transactions. They fall about 1,140 sales short of the seven year average.
So, what does that mean about 2009? It probably simply means that it took some sales from 2008.
The missing 1,140 sales might have been kicked over to 2010. Who knows! However, the important point to note is that 2009 is not a good year for comparative purposes and neither was 2008.
2008……….recession
2009……….recovery
So, the better approach would be to take several years, either the last 5 or more, average them out and compare those numbers to 2010, in order to see what 2010 was like in terms of sales. The conclusion, of course, is that 2010 was normal in terms of sales. In fact, it ran 4,225 sales ahead of average which is 5.03%. That’s the good news.
For those that are anxious to be pessimistic, there is still the opportunity to compare December 2010 to December 2009. That would show a 20.68% decrease.
And, for 2010, you must remember that the highest average sales prices were reached in that year.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker is an author and commentator on real estate matters, if you are interested in residential or commercial properties in Mississauga, Toronto or the GTA, you may contact him through Royal LePage Innovators Realty, Brokerage 905-796-8888
www.OntarioRealEstateSource.com
