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As we’re coming to the end of the year, I want to take a moment to reach out to my friends and clients. I want to wish you the best as we get into the new year. This past year, 2021, has been one for the records books. 18 months ago when the pandemic was starting, house showings dropped by 95% in those first 2 months. That was a pretty dramatic change in the way that we were doing business in the real estate industry. It improved from there greatly. We figured out how to interact with clients and showing houses in a new way and we got more comfortable with PPE, which was something we had never used in the industry.

This year, we’ve had one of the largest increases in real estate that we’ve seen on the record books. Depending on where you are, you’ve had a 15-25%, some areas 30%, growth. The GTA, where we’re focused, is in the 15-25% range. That’s been the value growth in the last 12 months. It’s been fueled a lot by people wanting to make changes. Realizing that working from home is something they want to focus on or that they don’t want to live in the core of the city. It’s surprising to see how this pandemic has changed the way we all look at the world. As we come into the year-end, however you plan on celebrating, I’m hoping you get a little of time off, a little bit of time to decompress. It’s been a heck of a year due to work and having to social distance. I think it’s important that we all get a little bit of time to relax.

Check out the 5 Need-to-know Steps before Buying a Home in the West GTA

What’s happening in the new year as far as real estate goes, that is anybody’s guess. I do believe that as we stay in this pandemic, with interest rates being as low as they are, we’re going to continue to see growth in real estate prices and we’re going to continue to see few listings. Last year between December and February, there weren’t many listings on that market. There was a big price increase at that time so I would expect to see the same thing.

Some of the things you may not know are that we’ve been working on a lot of stuff technology-wise in our team. It’s custom and special, to help with some of the unique challenges that we have on the West Side of the GTA. We’re really excited to bring that out to you. You’re going to see some amazing tools and some amazing information that’s going to be good if you’re looking to buy a home. And if you’re not looking to move and you’re staying in your home, there’s going to be some great tools as well. We’re going to have evaluations and sold data, and just some really cool features that don’t really exist in the market. We’re really looking forward to launching that out. You’re going to hear more from us in January, February, March as we go through our beta testing and get this prepared for the big launch.

Search our new portal to find available listings, sold data and more in the West GTA

As we end out the year, I hope you’re able to spend some time with your family. I know some of us won’t be able to participate in Christmas based on how this current Omicron variant is coming out. There are a lot of people who are going to be isolating. Remember to try to use video conferencing when you can. It’s always nice to visually see people. And, when you are able to get together with people and family, I think you should take the opportunity to do it. We should take advantage of the moments that we can and make the most of them to help get through this. All the best, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays. I hope that 2022 brings some great things for you!