declining midtown toronto house prices?

Examining average weekly sales for the time period 5 weeks before and after the government intervention April 20th, detached house prices are not up or down in the midtown area, averaging $2.73M  for both time periods.  However,  examination uncovered some things that should give sellers pause to think about strategies that have become common place in past years, that is, holding offers.  Today, there is more choice for buyer's therefore seller's have to be realistic in pricing (listing price to sale price closer to 100%).
Weekly average sold stats for detached homes in what I call “Classic Midtown Toronto”* illustrate there are 2 1/2 times more homes available for sale now (as of June 4th/17) than at the end of March.  We still have pent up demand for homes, so prices are holding steady in spite of this added supply.  In the 5 weeks before Apr. 20 (government intervention day) compared to the 5 weeks after, list price to sale price decreased from 117 to 102% of asking.  What does this mean?  Agents are now pricing sellers homes closer to what they are actually selling for; Agents are reconsidering hold-offer-strategies in favour of offers anytime, and advising sellers it may take a few more days to sell your home.  One more attractive thing about living in midtown is that the days it takes to sell your home is about the same as before, 11-13 days on average.  

Now let’s compare detached sold homes to another area.  I recently listed and sold a detached Richmond Hill home for a Leaside client’s mom’s estate - just as the Apr 20th Kathleen Wynn announcements were implemented to slow the market.  I manually did the stats for this area as well.  Similarly, list to sold price dropped from 117 to 105% on average.  Here in Richmond Hill, different than in midtown, those who didn’t take the time to do the detailed analysis between TREB’s reports coming out (I was doing weekly stats) exposed their clients listings to not selling on offer date.  They missed noticing the impact a 65% increase in listings would have on buyers, and didn’t realize the number of sold listings went from over 50 per week to less than 20 per week.  Prices dropped nearly $300,000. from mid-March to end of May as the talk of the government intervention frightened would-be-sellers into listing … and then suspending or terminating many listings (60% of the New Listings not selling).  Listing Agent’s job at this point is to educate would-be-sellers that their Richmond Hill home is still up 33% from last year April average sold prices; it’s just down from last month.  Midtown Toronto compared to Richmond Hill shows great differences in how the market reacted to the intervention.  

*(see attached map which takes in most of East of Bathurst, South of York Mills & Wilson, West of the East Don River to the Science Centre, following the CP Rail Line to Bayview and following the Don Valley to Bloor, following Bloor to Bathurst — Moore Park, Rosedale, Deer Park, Summerhill, Yorkville, Forest Hill, South Hill, Rathnelly, Casa Loma, The Annex, Davisville, Chaplin Estates, Allenby, North Toronto, Lawrence Park, Lytton Park, Bedford Park, Wanless Park, Teddington Park, East York’s Leaside, Bridle Path, Hoggs Hollow, Cricket Club, Ledbury Park, and Caribou Park.