Toronto’s Housing Market Redefined

According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, it takes 11 days longer to sell a home than what was previously thought and displayed. TREB’s 50,000 plus customers are to be provided with a complex, yet refined look at how the Toronto housing market is actually doing. This report was released by Jason Mercer, director of market analysis for the TREB.

The gap that is ever so present in the current statistics is one that results from an inaccurate calculation. According to TREB, various members had reported that they felt something was missing from the market statistic reports, yet could never figure out what it was. Now, they have. The last calculation calculated DOM as the amount of time a house or single listing lasted in the seller/buyer system. The calculation was missing price changes, terminations, and even statistics regarding how much time a property send on the market within a previous listing.

“Since January, 2003, the average spread between the ‘Avg. LDOM [Listing days on market]’ statistic and the new ‘Avg. PDOM [property days on market]’ statistic was approximately eight days. In February, 2019, the spread was approximately 11 days.”

Unbeknownst to many, the relisting phenomenon was widespread. February of 2019 showed that almost 20 percent of listings that had been sold were previously on a different listing. Therefore, 20 percent were on a relist cycle.

According to Jason Mercer, DOM has never been all that accurate, and has actually been known to a represent lag. “It provides another snapshot of the marketplace. I’m not trying to liken it to equities, but you hear about volatility metrics…,” stated Mercer. “It remains to be seen whether something like this will follow that same path. It’s early days”.

“We’ve been adding features over time, as we move forward we’re always looking for more ways to add to market knowledge for members,” stated Mercer.