Driving around Toronto you’ll often see signs with realtors advertising how they’ve successfully sold a property for “over asking.”The impression one could take from this is the city’s housing market is a seller’s paradise with long lines of potential homebuyers willing to outbid each other, driving prices up and sending sellers running gleefully to the bank.But some new research suggests this perception may not match reality.Curious to test out the notion that “over asking” sales are the norm or close to that and to learn why houses sell for over or under asking, Igor Dragovic, an urban land economist and licensed realtor, recently analyzed 4,230 home sales for January to November this year in a specific downtown Toronto area.He found that only 29 per cent of homes sold over asking.The vast majority of homes in west downtown — the area bounded by Bloor Street to the north, the waterfront to the south, Yonge Street to the east and the rail lines near Lansdowne Avenue to the west — sold at or under their listed price, Dragovic discovered.“I was a lit bit surprised to see this in downtown west, generally a pretty hot pocket in housing right now,” Dragovic said in an interview.He used data collected by the Toronto Real Estate Board, and compared specific neighbourhoods in the area. The analysis also took in various housing types including semis, detached homes, condos and townhouses.Dragovic found that the Bay Street corridor had the lowest percentage of homes selling over asking — 84 of the 610 units sold or 14 per cent, while neighbourhoods such as Dufferin Grove and Trinity Bellwoods, where more lowrise houses exist, are seeing about 50 per cent of homes selling for over asking. In Trinity Bellwoods for example, 76 homes sold at or under the listed price while 75 sold over.In terms of housing types, semis, Dragovic found, ranked the highest in terms of homes selling over asking — ...
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