What The “Recession” Really Is … And What It Means For Your Real Estate Market Part 2

February 19, 2010

Lamb: There are people who have been transferred here and they want to buy a place, or they’ve gotten a divorce or they’ve separated from their girlfriend.  We see that every day.  But it’s not like it was.

One would think that if things were so bad out there that there would be lots of foreclosures.  Yet Lamb says there are almost none, and he’s talking about where is brokerage is focused: downtown Toronto, probably one of the most over built places in the entire Toronto area.

Stinson: We’re actually going to see a real real estate market where people are actually buying, selling and moving because they have a reason to buy, sell and move, instead of treating it like a stock market where I’m selling or buying because I’m going to make a whole bunch of money.

Stinson’s comment is one of the truest statements made during this discussion.  The Toronto real estate market had growth for 9 years straight until all the US economic doom and gloom started appearing in the media.  9 years!  Consistent growth for that many consecutive years has never happened in my nearly 40 years in the real estate business in any of the markets I’ve been involved in across North America.  So the Toronto real estate market was bound to plateau or decline for some time afterward as it’s always done in the past.  But, as Stinson says, the real estate market is really just going back to what it normally is: a market that has periodic ups, downs and plateaus but is steadily rising over time.  That’s the way real estate markets have always worked.

Lamb also talks about how recent years during this boom in real estate were abnormal:

Lamb: a normal real estate market is where it takes about 90 to 120 days to sell, and you actually get a chance to look at it four or five times, bring your kids and your friends, your family, and you make an offer and negotiate and end up with a four per cent discount off the asking price.  That’s how it always was.  It’s just been about three years of my 20 years in this business where I’ve seen this insanity.  We had situations with 39 or 40 offers on a single condo or house.  It didn’t make sense to me.

Filed under: Inspiration

Tags: Big City Broker, Brad J Lamb, Brad Lamb, carriage trade, depression, doom and gloom, economy, Elise Kalles, Garth Turner, Harry Stinson, Harvey Kalles, Mike Eppel, real estate market, recession, Richard Wengle, Sherry Cooper