Toronto Real Estate Report - 2009

DECEMBER, 2009. TORONTO REAL ESTATE AND TORONTO HOMES FOR SALE.

Perhaps only fools make predictions...
The season is over-run with grandiose summaries of the "Year Gone By". Countless reports will certainly focus on the disaster averted, and specifically just how close the global economies came to monumental malfunction. The true heroes of the recovery will be profiled and lionized, with various credit given to central bankers, world leaders and media agitators who may have played some role in the cumulative reversal of the misfortune of 2009.

The local media may go overboard. Toronto has been spared so much of the hardship that washed through other economies, taking away jobs, housing, retirement savings and, most profoundly, hope. From the bustling streets of Toronto, passing packed restaurants, busy retailers and a sea of high end vehicles, it is perhaps too easy to forget the magnitude of the losses suffered by others. How the profound downturn missed us (or perhaps has so far missed us) I will leave to others much more qualified to explore. But millions of others are truly less fortunate, displaced from home, removed from the honour of work and punished by the perils of a global doom.

So while we can celebrate a year of extraordinary market growth and a recovery in the Toronto residential market which has allowed sellers to cash out with extraordinary returns, I'm hesitant to do so. While many real estate agents are coming off one of the busiest 6-month periods in recent memory, it would be a disservice to humility to cheer all the way to the bank. Because regardless of our individual triumphs - massive capital gains from the market, sizeable profits or indeed superb commission income - many have profited in a time of general despair.

While it is always true that "one man works, while another man stumbles", the disparity between achievement and profound loss in our very own country should most certainly not be ignored.

So it is with this in mind that I extend to my clients, my friends, my colleagues and business partners a somewhat muted holiday cheer: May you have peace, health and prosperity in the year to come and the privilege to share the same good fortune with those whose struggle continues.

My warmest wishes,

Paul