Are stubborn sellers killing the real estate crash? – Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Like many others, Toronto public relations manager Megan Vickell is sitting on the real estate sidelines dreaming of bargains to come.

The 28-year-old has never owned a property and is hoping to scoop up a discounted Toronto condo when prices fall off today’s frothy record highs.

“I’m waiting for that bubble to pop that everybody is talking about so I’m not sitting there owning a condo in the city that later everybody else has for a much cheaper price,” said Ms. Vickell. “I mean look at everything that’s being built, who is going to live in all those? There’s lots of beautiful spots out there.”

You can’t blame her for wanting to wait. Research firm Urbanation Inc. says Toronto’s average condo prices climbed to as high as $407 per square foot in 2012, a sharp rise from the $229 per square foot fetched in the first quarter of 2003.

The picture is not much different nationally. The average sale price across the country was $364,260 over the first 11 months of 2012, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. Compare that to beginning of this boom when the average sale price across the country was $158,303 in 1999.

But what if the crash never comes?