Most housing stats typically being shared relate to home prices, sales volume, etc. What we haven't seen much of is analysis of the qualitative characteristics of properties being purchased. Especially given the massive societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we thought it would be interesting to see if there are any other trends that have not yet been brought to light. In this new article series, we will be calculating the percentage of home sales in the Greater Toronto Area that contain certain keywords. Consider this like Google Trends but for homes. This analysis should be taken with a grain of salt, as it is entirely dependent on what the listing agent puts in the property description. After all, whether that empty room becomes a home gym, home office, gaming room, or nursery, is entirely up to the buyer.
Below, we look at the percentage of sales each month that contained the word "office" in the description. In this example, we're looking across the Greater Toronto Area and at detached homes, semi-detached homes, row homes, and apartments.
There is much debate regarding the future of the workforce and whether most people be working from home permanently, returning to their offices, or a mix of both. The interest in home offices had been steadily climbing since the start of the pandemic but saw a large decrease from 10.1% in May 2021 to 8.7% in July 2021 (to date). Was this just a blip or will this start to decline now that more people have been vaccinated and businesses are starting to reopen?
What other keywords are you interested in seeing these charts for? Let us know and we will consider doing a similar article on those in the coming months!
After reading this article:
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