'Crazy' real estate bidding wars infect the suburbs

Frustrated Toronto and Vancouver buyers invade nearby regions, sparking bidding wars

By Laura MacNaughton, CBC News

After six months of searching and 18 failed offers, Kate Stoodley and her husband Neil have finally purchased their first home.

“Roller-coaster of emotion is what it was,” she told CBC News.

Multiple offers are typical for buyers in Toronto and Vancouver. But the Stoodleys fought their housing battle near Whitby, Ont., a suburb about a 45-minute drive east of Toronto.

It is a town where, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board, the average price of a detached home was $518,705 in April of last year.

Now it’s $618,032 — an increase of more than 19 per cent in a year.

And over the entire 905 region of the Greater Toronto Area the price of a detached home has increased by even more.

As she and her husband made one bid after another, Stoodley realized they had to spend a lot more.

That meant a budget increase to $450,000, and she still felt priced out of her hometown and the surrounding area.

“On one house we offered $105,000 over asking and didn’t get the house. The house went for $130,000 over asking,” she said.  

Like many first-time homebuyers, the Stoodleys had a condition of pending finance approval, something they weren’t comfortable removing even though in this market that one condition often meant the difference between getting a house and losing one.

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