Sylvia Schmidt - Toronto Real Estate

10/08/2026

Milton house prices are down 41% from their 2022 peak. Oakville, right next door, is down 28%.

Same border. Very different ride.

I pulled the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board numbers for 15 Greater Toronto Area markets. The graph shows how far each one fell below its 2022 high. Across the GTA, it's 34%.

If you're buying, don't pop the ch*****ne yet. Mortgage rates are roughly double what they were in early 2022, so an $800,000 mortgage costs about $1,370 more a month. Measured by the monthly payment, the real discount is closer to 10% than 34%.

Where do you think your suburb landed? Find it on the graph.

Full breakdown on my blog. Link is in the first comment.

09/25/2026

I spent the last three days at Nrth (formerly Elevate), Toronto's big tech and innovation festival. Lots of AI, fintech and founders. The sessions that stuck with me most had nothing to do with software. They were about people and trust.

Adam Collins, Reddit's Chief Communications Officer, made a point that really landed: as technology makes answers faster and information effortless to find, people do not stop needing guidance. They lean harder on real people and trusted communities to help them make high-stakes decisions.

The information scales instantly. The trust does not.

Another session on client experience drove home the exact same truth. As more of the client journey gets automated, genuine curiosity and real connection are the first things to disappear.

They were speaking to tech founder, but they could easily have been talking to Toronto real estate agents.

Anyone looking at homes can pull up listings, recent solds, and mortgage calculators in seconds on their phone. Access to raw data is free. What buyers actually need is someone across the table to negotiate terms, spot the physical issues an app will never flag, and walk them through the questions they did not even know to ask. That judgment does not come from an algorithm.

No matter how fast technology moves, the people who continue to matter will always be the ones whose perspective you trust when the stakes are real.

09/24/2026

Most Toronto condo buyers are budgeting off the wrong number.

The purchase price gets all the attention. Your maintenance fee is the one that hits your account every single month.

Right now, a $950 monthly fee carries about the same weight as $170,000 to $190,000 in extra mortgage (based on a 4% rate).

Which means an $855,000 condo with a $400 fee and a $750,000 condo with a $950 fee can cost you the exact same amount every month, assuming the same down payment.

Before you fall for a sticker price, check:

Fee per square foot ($0.85 and $1.25 are very different buildings)
What's actually included (heat, hydro, water, parking upkeep)
The reserve fund study and status certificate

Full math and real downtown comparisons in the blog post. Link in the first comment.

09/17/2026

On offer night, almost everyone assumes the highest bid wins.

My buyer clients just proved that is not always true. Their offer came in below the highest bid on the table in a competitive multiple-offer situation, yet they walked away with the keys.

What tipped the balance was a sincere, specific letter to the sellers.

They skipped generic flattery and pointed directly to the architectural character the sellers had poured years of care into, along with their genuine commitment to the neighbourhood.

A letter will never rescue an uncompetitive number or messy terms. The math and the fundamentals still have to be solid. But when offers are neck and neck, sellers often care deeply about who steps into the home next.

I wrote a full breakdown on my blog looking at how sellers actually evaluate offers when the numbers are close, plus the important line between authentic appreciation and fair housing boundaries.

Link to the blog post in the first comment.

09/10/2026

Every municipal candidate across Ontario is campaigning on housing affordability right now. The irony is that their own city halls are the ones building the roadblocks.

OREA just put out their election report. 70% of people support missing middle housing and density in existing neighbourhoods. At the same time, 65% say development charges and municipal fees directly hit their ability to afford a home.

People understand what is broken. The friction starts after election day.

In Toronto, a new single or semi-detached build carries a $137,846 development charge before anyone even lays a brick. Add slow committee approvals and local pushback on gentle density, and municipal fees are doing way more to block entry-level homes than zoning ever did.

Toronto just got $1.5B in funding to cut that charge by up to 60% over three years. That is essentially an admission from government that the fee itself was the wall.

Promises sound great on the trail. The real test is whether local councils actually fix the red tape they created without waiting for outside money to bail them out.

(Photo from a build day with Habitat for Humanity out in Scarborough.)

09/08/2026

Most Toronto listings don't sell the first time around.

2 in 3 properties get terminated, expired, suspended, or relisted at a new price. The "official" average days on market sits at 32 days. Once you factor in the relists, it's 46+.

A lot of buyers are still waiting on the sidelines for rates to drop before they move. Most forecasts have the Bank of Canada holding through the rest of the year, with the next move more likely a hike than a cut. Here's the leverage sitting in front of you right now, while they wait:

* Sellers past the 40-day mark are ready to negotiate
* Financing and inspection conditions won't get you laughed out of the room
* You have room to do real due diligence instead of racing an artificial offer night

When rates do eventually drop, that sidelined demand floods back in. The second buyers start competing again, the discounts disappear and the conditions get waived.

The rule hasn't changed: you can refinance your rate later. You can never renegotiate your price.

09/04/2026

August did not behave like one market in Toronto. It split right down the middle.

While detached, semi-detached, and townhouse prices all ticked up from July, condo prices continued to slide (down 3.5% month-over-month and 5% lower than last year).

At the same time, new listings dropped 15.3% across the city.

A quiet market does not mean an easy market. It means less competition for average homes, but the exact same competition for great properties in prime pockets.

I broke down the full Toronto real estate numbers and what this split actually means for buyers and sellers heading into the fall on my blog: https://www.sylviaschmidt.com/blog/102713/september-2026-the-toronto-market-split-in-half #

Toronto real estate split down the middle in August. Here's what it means for you. August didn't behave like one market. Detached, semi-detached and townhouse prices all

09/03/2026

I spent three evenings last month at Stan — Your All-in-One Creator Store Creator Meet, ctrlshift.to, and ClawBuilders instead of my usual real estate circles.

Watching founders pitch in Toronto changes how you write everything after. Nobody spends ten minutes on background. They give you the number, the payoff, and the point in the first five seconds.

Meanwhile my old habit when a client asked about closing costs was a four paragraph essay that opened with a definition.

I came home and started rewriting how I send client updates. Bottom line first. Background only if they actually ask for it.

Currently deleting three introductory paragraphs from tomorrow’s market report before anyone catches me.

12/05/2025

If Toronto real estate market had a mood this November, it was “standing in line at Tim’s deciding if you actually want the donut or if you’re just bored.” A little slow, a little cautious, but still full of possibilities if you know where to look.

I just put together a new Market Update that breaks down what’s happening out there in a clear, no-stress way. No confusing jargon. No panic. Just the real story of where things stand and what it means for buyers and sellers who want to make smart moves.

If you’re thinking about buying, selling, or just quietly creeping listings as a hobby, give it a read.

Here’s the link to the full update:�https://www.sylviaschmidt.com/blog/95698/toronto-real-estate-market-update-december-2025

If you want to talk through what this means for you, send me a message. I’m always happy to help.

Toronto felt a little introspective this November. The kind of month where the city zips up its jacket, squints at the skyline, and says, alright, what’s really going on

10/07/2025

The latest Toronto real estate numbers are in, and the story is… interesting. Sales are up from last year, buyers are coming back thanks to lower borrowing costs, and sellers are negotiating harder.

It’s not the wild market of a few years ago, but it’s also not stuck. It’s changing — and that means opportunity if you know how to read it.

I’ve broken it all down in plain language in this month’s October 2025 Market Update.

👉 Read my new blog post for all the details...

Here’s the thing about the Toronto housing market: it’s a bit like a band getting back together after a long hiatus. The energy is building, some people are showing up ea