Selling a home and moving to a new home can be a stressful business. It takes patience, effort and, above all, time. But how much? Many people want to know how long it takes to sell a home and it is one of the first questions we are asked by new clients. So, what is the answer?
Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer as to how long it takes to sell a home because there are so many variables involved. Among many other things, the sale time can be affected by:
That is not a definitive list and there are several other factors that can affect how long it takes to sell a home.
Even though each house is unique and we can’t know for sure how long it will take to sell, there are general statistics we can look at to give a rough idea for the area. For example, in the City of Toronto, between January 2016 and June 2017 the average number of days on market (DOM) for homes for sale ranged between 33 days and 10 days.
Looking at individual areas of Toronto during that timeframe, the highest average DOM was 50 days and was recorded in January 2016 in Toronto C12, which covers St Andrews-Winfield and Lawrence Park North. Meanwhile, the lowest average was six days and that was recorded in Toronto E01 (Riverdale) and E08 (Cliffcrest, Scarborough Village and Guildwood) in April 2017, as well as E01 and E09 (Bendale, Woburn and Morningside) in March 2017.
Looking elsewhere in the GTA during that same period, the average DOM ranged between 71 days (in Adjala-Tosorontio in January 2017) and six days (recorded in both Whitby and Ajax in march 2017). York Region is one of the most in demand areas for real estate in the GTA and that is reflected in its average DOM, which remained between 26 days and nine days during that year and a half. Meanwhile, Peel Region ranged from 27 to eight days and Durham Region ranged from 23 to seven days.