It's amazing how the U.S. Presidential Race affected our business in Canada. The last two weeks leading to the election, Torontonians were drawn to their TV's, totally engrossed in the race , putting their lives and any decisions on hold. Thus the real estate activity, while good, was less than anticipated.

As soon as Obama was declared the winner, it seemed as if a wave of positive energy went through all of us. At RE/MAX Realtron, the number of appointments on our listings increased significantly and was consistently over 2000 per week resulting in 384 firm sales for our company with 168 being listings sold. The Toronto Real Estate Board reported the sale of 3640 homes, a reasonable amount considering the November market is one of the slower months of the year, with 7.53 % of the annual sales taking place . RE/MAX Realtron, with 1.8 % of the agents, sold 5.9 % of the listings. If you need a house sold, you can see that Realtron's the place to do it! The average home price in Toronto now stands at $379,989 up 1.2% over the same time period last year.

As the real estate market turn continues to turn from a sellers market to a buyers market, with more homes available than buyers, and a lowering of interest rates, this is a great time to purchase a home for first time buyers. Over the last few years as the cost of ownership increased, many first time buyers were knocked out of the market not being able to afford that new home. Now again, they can.

The month of December represents 5.14 % of the sales for the year, so I expect that there will be about 3,000 homes sold to 3000 buyers, or 6000 transactions. With fewer buyers around, December is an opportunity to get a great house at a great price. Call me at RE/MAX Realtron at 416-289-3333 - I would be happy to help.

F.

The latest market news can also be obtained through my weblink www.fergussharpe.com/realestatenews