Are housing costs more than they were in 1985
Anybody who reads this Blog probably knows that I don’t like it when people sensationalize Real Estate news, and that I prefer to look at past results to help us make better decisions. Which is why I love this article by Jason Heath in the Financial Post on whether homes cost more now than they did 30 years ago. This is a great read that goes nicely with my recent post on whether Toronto Can Afford Million Dollar Homes. It provides a great comparison to what home buyers were facing in the 1980s and looks at Toronto specifically which helps readers digest information specific to their location.
We are often inundated with simple data and bold statements which, I think, leads to great misinterpretation. For instance, our Bank of Canada Governor made headlines in December stating that Canadian home prices could be seen as overvalued by as much as 30%. Many people could have immediately taken this information and localized it; for Toronto Home Buyers, this might have created the expectation that home prices were due to drop in 2015. In actuality, the opposite has happened in Toronto as we see home prices – especially for single family detached homes across the GTA – continue to head higher and higher.
Toronto’s Real Estate industry produces some great headlines, but knowing that a home attracted 25 offers or sold for $200,000 above asking price provides less market insight than you think. Even headlines coming from the experts can be misguiding if we don’t look into cause and effect.
