So far, January has been busy with lots of home owners looking to see what their properties are worth.

We’ve had five sales already this month and I think the onset of the HST this summer has sellers and buyers moving quickly to avoid extra costs.

One sale we completed this week was for a young couple looking to buy in Forest Hill.

They had looked at the home back in October and finally made a move this week after realizing there just wasn’t much else on the market.

The home was listed for $2,195,000 and it sold for just under $2,000,000.

It was a beautiful Tudor home with six bedrooms, six washrooms on a 66-foot frontage.

Many upgrades and additions had been completed over recent years but the new owners intend on adding their own touches in the future.

Even though that home sold for below the asking price, we’re still seeing bidding wars in the market.

There was a house listed through our office for just under $800,000 that ended up selling for more than $940,000.

Clearly it was worth quite a bit more than $800,000, so they had multiple offers and it went well over the asking price.

Buyers should be careful not to get carried away in a bidding war as I have seen emotions go far too high and some people are sorry later.

Looking forward, I think Toronto will continue to see a healthy market but the bidding wars might calm down a bit as supply increases.

As for the HST, I think buyers and sellers will still buy and sell after the initial shock.

On interest rates, I don’t think it’s too relevant right now as even if they increase slightly, they are still very low and affordable.