Toronto's housing market has fallen from its red-hot glory, with sales numbers dropping by staggering amounts, homes sitting on the market for far longer and sellers letting things go for below asking price, a far cry from the bidding wars and quick sales of yore.

Along with new condo developments being put on hold while investors back out to sit on the sidelines, another concerning trend has been identified in the latest report on the city's real estate downturn: an appallingly high number of terminated listings.

Toronto home sales are in a nosedive and experts are very worried https://t.co/peO9tAtYgi #Toronto #RealEstate

— blogTO (@blogTO) September 3, 2023

As Strata.ca notes in its latest newsletter, this fall has been chillier than usual in the real estate world, with 20 per cent fewer home sales in the GTA this November than the same month in 2022, and average prices for some property types (condos, in this case), down as well.

While house prices and the market's notoriously low affordability have remained surprisingly stable amid the havoc wreaked by high mortgage rates, it seems that more and more sellers are deciding to terminate their listings.

Some are even forced to re-list at a lower price as the city moves toward a buyer's market with a glut of options available to those with the funds.

"While buyers may take advantage of cooling prices, sellers must readjust their expectations. Terminated listings continue to climb with 3,485 properties already pulled this month," the real estate platform notes.

"Sellers are realizing buyers have many more listings to choose from. For instance, there are currently 9,025 condos for sale. The last time we had this much condo supply was in September 2020. As for houses, there are over 6,400 available; the highest freehold inventory in four years."

People still want nothing to do with Toronto's turbulent housing market 🏘️ https://t.co/RPphSE4zOL #Toronto #RealEstate #Housing #Affordability

— blogTO (@blogTO) November 2, 2023

Adding these factors to the many already working against sellers and brokers right now, and you've got a recipe for a market that will continue to favour buyers, with some experts predicting further softening and more substantial price drops in the coming months.

Of course, it's unlikely that we will ever see a Toronto that can be considered "affordable" to the vast majority of residents even if affordability does improve somewhat, and other cities in Canada will always remain preferable as far as cost of living is concerned.

Don't fall for the narrative. These 'low priced' homes are still grossly overvalued.

— Louis Rokeby (@RokebyLouis) October 16, 2023

Some stakeholders will less rosey projections are anticipating that the cost of everything across Canada though, including housing, will only continue to get worse.