Seven days before Christmas and I’m still writing?
Wait……but you’re still reading!
I’d like to thank all the daily TRB readers for their continued support, readership, and contributions in the comments section over the last year, including, but most certainly not limited to:
Derek, Ace Goodheart, Vancouver Keith, Marina, Anwar, Serge, Graham (of many monikers), Izzy Bedibida, Different David, Libertarian, Francesca, Steve, Milk Man, hoob, cyber, Jennifer, your_favourite_tenant, JG, Oscar Lutgardis, Lizard, TOPlanner, DAF, JF007, Geoffrey, Shawn, Marmota, Justin, anonymous, J, Karolina, JL, Crofty, Moonbeam!, Maureen, Gord McCormick, Quiet Bard, Ed, Andrew, London Agent, Mike, Alex, Toad, Sigruper, PattyM, Max, Kevin, Peter Dewar, Johnny Chase, Rick Michalski, RPG, TokyoTuds, Nobody, Jonathan C, Zelia, Bryan, Paully, Daniel, Laurie, Dana, Anne, Marty, Island Home Owner, TT…..and what happened to Appraiser? I see nary a comment since September. Shall we send out a search party?
Those final two blog posts were exhausting, folks!
I mean, it’s clearly my fault. And deep down, I know that while my mother might settle in for a quaint 6,248 word read on a Monday morning, there’s a whole lot of skimming going on amongst the rest of the readership.
Brevity has never been my strong suit.
I wrote 97 blog posts this year, totalling over 217,000 words.
According to Google’s AI Overview, a typical book is 70,000 – 100,000 words, so if you count yourselves among the folks that read every blog post in 2025, then thank you for reading my two novels! 🙂
I had a lot of fun on Toronto Realty Blog this year, as well as recording Pick5 and The Last Honest Realtor.
As many of you know, I cut back from blogging three times per week to merely two, starting in 2024. But this was so I could dedicate a little more time to the podcast, which is a lot of the same information, opinions, and market analysis, but just provided in a different medium.
Last week, I was walking down the street to take my kids sledding, and I could see through the window of this one house where an older gentleman was sitting in a chair.
The image is ingrained in my brain.
He was reading the newspaper.
Folded in half, not in quarters, spread across his right leg, which was folded overtop his left.
Glasses down on the bridge of the nose, head tilted downward.
Coffee, undoubtedly on a small table to the right of his leather chair, but I couldn’t get a view of it.
After twenty seconds or so, the man flipped the newspaper up, folded it over in mid-air, and began reading the other side of the page.
There’s almost an art form to the mid-air newspaper fold. A lost art form.
My daughter asked me, “Did you ever get the newspaper, Daddy?”
I told her that once upon a time, I did. When I lived downtown with mommy – before we got married, I had the newspaper delivered to my front door every morning, and I would read it at the gym.
My daughter asked, “Did they not have the news on your phone at that time, Daddy?”
Maybe.
I honestly don’t remember.
But I do know that the way in which we seek, view, and absorb news and information of interest has changed dramatically over the last few years, and I remain exceptionally grateful to the Toronto Realty Blog readers for still coming to discuss real estate in this forum every day.
2025 was a wild ride in the real estate market!
When the year’s data is released in January, we’ll most certainly see that sales hit a millennium-low, somewhere around 63,000. This is a little more than half of the record 122,000+ sales recorded in 2021. I can’t think of a better way to explain how the real estate market and industry have changed in only four years, as well as the effect it has on the market participants.
Many of the same themes will be repeated in 2026.
Prices.
Sales.
The death of the pre-construction condo industry.
Discussions about “building more homes” from every level of government.
How about affordability?
That’s a moving target, since the definition of “affordable” seems to change every year.
But one thing is for certain: the residents of this city will never get tired of talking about real estate. If it was ever going to happen, it would have happened by now.
This also means we’ll never run out of things to talk about here on Toronto Realty Blog, just in case you were worried!
I’m looking forward to some down time over the holidays.
We’re ordering Chinese food to the house on Christmas Eve, and hosting my mother and sister.
On Christmas morning, I always make a feast of pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausages, and eggs. The kids barely touch it, but I’ve always been privy to a basic 8,000 calorie breakfast on a day when you sit around and do nothing…
On Christmas evening, we’ll head to my mother’s, where she plans to make a turkey for the first time in two decades.
And on Boxing Day, we’ll head to my father’s for a to-be-determined meal (I have to assume turkey, though?) and I’ll see my brother and his family, who are heading in from Europe.
Lots of family time ahead!
And in between, I’m going to make the naive assumption that the kids will get along, share their things, and won’t fight at all.
I believe this is referred to as a “Christmas Miracle” in some circles.
The world is complicated. Everybody’s lives are busy. Time is flying by.
So here’s hoping that you get to spend as much time as possible with your friends and family over the holidays!
Wishing you health, happiness, laughter, and love.
See you in 2026!
David.
