December Toronto Real Estate Update

Hello and Happy New Year! 🎉 From my family to yours, I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful 2025 filled with happiness, health and prosperity!

Speaking of prosperity, remember when Real Estate was the staple of prosperous living in Toronto? Buy a house, sell a house, make a profit, rinse and repeat. Simple right? Well, not so much anymore. Now, things are little more complicated and after reviewing the Toronto Real Estate market stats for December it’s clear that the market is still facing some challenges.

Historically, December is a month filled with holidays, personal breaks, and family time. It’s always a slow time for real estate, but combine that with a massive drop in new home listings, and you’ve got a market so silent it could’ve been a real estate remix of Silent Night, in fact, it would have been titled, Silent Month.

So what exactly happened? Let's get into it!

December’s slowdown came down to one major factor: a lack of fresh listings for buyers to choose from.

With fewer homes hitting the market, buyers were left browsing existing inventory that often missed the mark—whether it was the price, location, or condition.

Even with a slight drop in interest rates and an increase in insurance premiums, buyers and sellers remain at a standstill, misaligned on value. Buyers are holding out, hoping for dramatic price drops or emergency sales, but that’s just not the reality right now. While some sellers are willing to show flexibility, it’s within limits—there’s no wave of $200k price cuts to fuel a frenzy.

Both sides seem content to wait, leaving the market in a bit of a stalemate as we enter the new year.

I wish I had more to report, but honestly, not much happened in December—unless you count the collective market shrug. With no new listings to shake things up and both buyers and sellers standing their ground, it was about as eventful as watching paint dry.

Here’s hoping 2025 brings something worth talking about, because December sure didn’t!

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You've read my personal opinion, but now here are the cold, hard facts.

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Please note that these statistics cover only the City of Toronto. Not Richmond Hill, Not Mississauga, Not Vaughan, etc. If you would like to know what's happening in another area in GTA, please reach out and let me know. I'm happy to chat!  

‍Want to look on your own and see the numbers for yourself? Click Here to view the official statistics that every Real Estate gets sent from TREB and uses for their market updates. These are the exact numbers I use for my Toronto updates and if you want, I can prepare an update as detailed as this blog update for your city, neighbourhood and even street.

Don't be shy, reach out and just ask!

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So without further ado, let's take a look at the December Statistics with the charts and breakdown below ⤵️

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"3 months in a row with a decline in new listings? I thought the market was back? What does this mean???"  Great question! And, the answer is pretty simple and straightforward when you break it down.

Real Estate has seasons/markets/quarters.  Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.  The fall market usually begins September with a flurry of new listings, stabilizes in October, cools in November, and then shuts it down completely Mid December, with the Winter Market reappearing again in January. This is historically how the Fall Market has trended over the years so really, it's not surprising at all to see this decline in new listings.

Looking at each property type specifically,

Detached homes went from 1101 new listings to 391, a -64.49% decrease.

Semi-Detached went from 289 to 73, a -74.74% decrease.

Freehold Townhomes went from 136 to 39, a -71.32% decrease.

Condo Townhomes went from 289 to 133, a -53.98% decrease.

Condo Apartments went from 2518 to 1131, a -55.08% decrease.

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Key Takeaway - December is not historically a big month for new listings, quite the opposite actually. As mentioned previously, this is the status quo for November Real Estate.   Also, with new buyer incentives coming in Mid December (interest rate drop, insurance cap increase,etc.), I suspect many sellers have been advised to wait and see the effect and that there a potential for a strong start to 2025. Personally if I was thinking of selling my home, I would be thinking the exact same way and preparing to list early January.

ALL property types had a decrease in active listings meaning, slowly but surely the inventory/supply are being chipped away at and sold.  The supply still outweighs the demand but for the third month in a row, there are less listings available for sale.

Specifically,

Detached homes went from 1971 to 1291, a -34.5% decrease.

Semi-Detached went from 428 to 248, a -42.06% decrease.

Freehold Townhomes went from 192 to 112, a -43.43% decrease.

Condo Townhomes went from 648 to 459, a -29.17% decrease.

Condo Apartments went from 5359 to 4075, a -23.96% decrease.

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Key Takeaway - Buyers are back and slowly but surely, homes are selling again....eventually.  And with a lack of new listings for another month, the number of active listings reached it's lowest since the Spring Market. Normally, when we start to see the number of for sale homes decline and reach certain levels, the warning sign that we are entering a sellers market will go off but not right now.   But, if we get another month or two of no new listings, and the rates reach 2.75-3%, buyers might start to feel the urge to make a move and then all of sudden, things will change.   I can say confidently, we are in balanced market right now, but as we've seen in the past, things can change very fast.

With a very little amount of new listings to choose from, buyers took a pause and sales took a dip. December is always a quite month with the holidays but this was flat out dead. Even with the interest rate dropping again, buyers were not motivated.  And to be honest, it doesn't really seem like some sellers are either. I have seen the same homes listed over and over again with the agents and sellers fooling around with the price and refusing to acknowledge other comparable sales and trends in their neighbourhood. Buyers want lower prices, sellers are holding firm.

Needless to say, we are at somewhat of an impasse,

Looking at each property type

Detached homes went from 681 sales to 309, a -54.63% decrease.

Semi-Detached went from 207 to 113, a -45.41% decrease.

Freehold Townhomes went from 69 to 43, a -37.68% decrease.

Condo Townhomes went from 138 to 93, a -32.61% decrease.

Condo Apartments went from 1127 to 606, a -46.23% decrease.

Key Takeaway - Unless it's a great property or a great price, buyers are waiting and staying patient.   They need to be persuaded. The market is talking, but some sellers are just wanting to listen and therefore, there is no conversation.

Prices did fluctuate across all property albeit all under 5%, and few reverting to last months numbers. It's almost like a see-saw in a playground, up a little, then down a little, and then back up, etc. Small movements month to month highlights the "balance" in the market. Even with reasonable interest rates, unless they’re paired with equally attractive properties, demand isn’t strong enough to sustain prolonged price growth, leading to inevitable fluctuations.

Specifically,

Detached homes went from  $1,695,939 to $1,624,500, a -4.21% decrease.

Semi-Detached went from $1,248,930 to $1,302,024, a 4.25% increase.

Freehold Townhomes went from $1,166,686 to $1,111,191, a -4.76% decrease

Condo Townhomes went from  $853,140 to $773,160, a 3.87% increase

Condo Apartments went from $713,364 to $719,774, a 0.9% increase

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Key Takeaway -Fewer sales and a decline in average price across the board? Oh boy, that doesn’t sound great, does it?

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At first glance, it’s surprising and a bit confusing. But when you factor in the lack of new listings, it becomes clear that the majority of sales were from homes listed the previous month. These homes had been on the market for a while, so perhaps this month’s sellers were more open to negotiation—ultimately impacting the average price.  

Buyers are probably smiling and feeling a little relief, sellers maybe not so much but, there is a silver lining - year-over-year, sales and the avg price in general have increased from 2023.  We are in a much better position than last year, there is no doubt about it, but there is still a ways to go.   Even with the rolled buyer incentives, and falling interest rates, the economy is still struggling with high unemployment levels, expensive groceries and in general a high cost of living, that is limiting many people from buying and owning a home.

December was a SLOW month in terms of how long it actually took a home to sell from the day it was listed.  Yes, it was a big month for holidays and people taking time off but even with an interest rate drop and insurance increase, buyers didn't run, they didn't walk, they crawled when it came to wanting to see and buy a home.  Having a home take a 30 days to sell in Toronto is rare so this is something to really keep an eye on.

Looking at each property type :

Detached went from 25 to 49 days to sell (a 60% increase).

Semi-Detached 21 to 30 days (a 42.86% increase).

Freehold Townhome 23 to 39 days (a 69.57% increase).

Condo Townhomes 33 to 39 days (a 18.18% increase).

Condo Apartments 36 to 39 days (a 8.33% increase).

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Ok! That's it for now. Thanks for reading and have a great day! 👋 - Tyson CR

‍‍Want to know what the current value of your home is or what's going on in your neighbourhood?

Please feel free to reach out! I'm happy to prepare a completely free, no obligation custom market report just for you

If you or anyone is thinking of a move don’t be shy and reach out.  

After all, everyone’s individual situation requires an individual and unique strategy and plan.

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