28 metronews.caTHURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2011home

NO FEBRUARY FUNK

FOR CONDO SALES

Real news. Toronto

Recently, I was asked by areporter what I thought ofthe fact that new homesales in the GTA weredown 13 per cent in Janu-ary. My response was thatJanuary is when buildersare offering inventory asopposed to new launches,therefore I would be nomore or less excited ifsales were up or down by13 per cent.

I added that sales in Feb-ruary and March would bemuch more revealing ofany trend, and that I ex-pected some positive re-sults based on the industrybuzz about new projectlaunches.

As it happens, my pre-diction was accurate, al-beit far too conservative —new condo sales in the

GTA in February weresmokin’ hot. As a matter offact, it was the best Febru-ary ever for condo sales.

According to RealNetCanada Inc., there were2,202 new condos sold inthe GTA last month, mark-ing the first time ever thatmore than 2,000 high-riseunits have been sold inFebruary — so much forthe proverbial blahs!

Usually, when recordsare broken, it’s by small in-crements, not 36 per centbetter than the third bestyear ever (2010) or 26 percent compared to the sec-ond best year (2002).

For fun, I calculated av-erage condo sales for themonth of February sincethe year 2000, and it’sabout 1,100 units, so thisyear’s total is double thelong-term average.

Not surprisingly, condosales accounted for 61 percent of total new homesales in the GTA in Febru-ary.

I’ll be watching theMarch numbers (due outmid-April) with great inter-est and am expecting avery solid first quarter fornew condo sales in theGTA — we’re certainly offto a great start!

Rooftop Surfing

STEPHENDUPUISHOME@METRONEWS.CA

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Meet the condo

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