Here a Million, There a Million

So you think you got a million dollar home in Toronto? You're not alone.

As of October 5, there were 1,223 properties in the TREB MLS system listed for more than $1 million. That's 6.3% of the total estimated listings of 19,000. (Toronto MLScovers an area from Orangeville and Oakville in the west through Durham Region in the east.)

But listing and selling prices are two different things. In hot markets, or for hot properties, buyers gladly sign full-price and overprice offers. Conversely, homes can languish on the market for months or even years as sellers resist cutting prices when markets slow.

Still, last month, 175 properties were sold for $1 million or more. Not a bad sales-to-listing ratio. So far this month (through 7 October) 21 homes have changed hands for $1 million and more.


Million Dollar Digs in Midtown

Updated two-storey on a 50'-125' lot on St. Clements Ave., 5 br, 2 baths, annual taxes of $9,422. Listed at $929,000, sold 3 October for $1,092,000. On market for one week. Listing agent: Re/Max Ultimate Realty. Photo: TREB

Which means that:

1) A million dollar price tag on a resale home isn't the barrier it once was. Say, when a "luxury" car was $4,000-$5,000;

2) The price threshold of "luxury" should be notched upwards, perhaps to $1.4-$1.5 million. With a definition tied to the magic 7 figures, thousands of "luxury" homes are sold every year. That just doesn't sound very exclusive. When you've seen the extraordinary ordinariness of some of these million dollar babies--'60s tract bungalows, for instance--the appellation stretches credulity;

3) If "luxury" home sales are often the canary of the real estate market, we may not yet be facing the American-style collapsing bubble.