Cottage sales perk up just in time for some feel-good real estate stories
According to the Toronto Star, the Ontario cottage market is heating up along with the weather. This is good news, especially for buyers, since the economic chill is still keeping prices low. Well, low-ish. Consumer confidence is returning, as indicated by the 40 per cent increase in sales over last year at this time; but according to realtor Anita Latner, the bidding wars that raise prices haven’t spilled over from Toronto.
The expansion has been in the lower end of the cottage market, but there are signs of life even in the luxury department. Of the 324 cottage sales in the first quarter of 2010, two were for more than $3 million. “Dollar volume was also up by 46 per cent, representing more than $78 million worth of transactions,” says the Star. “But last year also represented the depths of the market, when buyers sealed their wallets.”
We love cottage stories, if only for the summer images they inspire—all docks and Topsiders and whatnot—though we’d like to get into some of the cottages the Star is viewing, since the writer refers to them as “bling” and the “the ultimate luxury splurge.”
