Homes for sale on Woodfield Road, in Toronto’s east end, on August 3.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The power balance in Canada’s real estate market has tilted toward buyers, but the sellers are actually the ones driving prices down at the moment.
“Sellers are leading the market decline,” says John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty. “They’re starting to price lower than the competition just so they can sell.”
Mr. Pasalis recalled the story of two Toronto buyers he represented who bid on a small, two-bedroom house in the city’s east end.
The house was listed with an asking price of $899,000 and a scheduled offer night in May. The buyers were the only bidders at the table that night, and they offered $990,000.
The sellers wanted a lot more, and at first they refused to even sign back the offer. After some cajoling by Mr. Pasalis, they responded with a counter-offer of…
