One of the best presents we got last week was the end of construction on the Gardiner Expressway. After more than a year of lane closures and avoidance at all costs, we are falling in love with our elevated highway all over again. No more playing “guess the alternative route across town”. This is great news for Realtors who can travel with ease across the bottom of the city... at least until the Pan Am games.

In a surprising twist, new freehold listings backed off by a little over 8% last week. Most of that came as a result of fewer listings in the central core. While sales have remained strong we did notice that the number of bidding wars dropped to 68% (from 70% the week prior). We are blaming this minor decrease on the crazy amount of rain that fell last week. Also of note was a near sweep in the central core’s entry level category ($400K-$700K) where 11 out of 13 homes sold in multiple offers.

Following the freehold category’s lead, new condo listings fell by 11% from the week earlier. The big story is the number of sales which increased over 8% in the same period to 260 units. Sure that’s great news but the bigger story is the fact that the number of suites sold at or above the asking price has reached one of the highest levels since we have been tracking it. That number is a remarkable 29.6%. It is the east core condo market that is driving prices up with 8 out of 10 condos selling in multiple offers (compared to just 3 out of 15 in the west).