Buyers are back and listings are scarce. How to price a listing for a market that's turning, not the one that just was. 07.2026 Ownright Partners Issue 15 Realty Check From the founders: price for where it's headed Buyers are coming back while the number of homes for sale keeps shrinking. That combination tightens a market, and it changes what a listing can do this half of the year. The instinct after a soft stretch is to price to the last few months of comps. But comps look backward, and a tightening market moves faster than they do. Lean on them too hard and you set the price too low for where the market already is. The other trap is the opposite: pricing to hope, chasing a number the market hasn't earned yet. The job this half is to price to what today's demand actually supports, not what the seller wishes for. We've always believed an agent's job is to price the market honestly, not the mood. The ones who get this right now will have the listings, and the trust, when the second half picks up. Joel Fox COO The library: resources you can forward to clients These are client-ready explainers you can forward when questions come up during a deal. Each one breaks down a common concept in plain language. Blog: capital gains tax when you sell your home in Ontario. Explains the principal-residence exemption, when a sale does trigger capital gains, and how to report it, for the client who assumes a home sale is always tax-free. Blog: what closing costs are tax deductible in Ontario? Sorts out which closing costs are deductible, which get added to the adjusted cost base instead, and how a rental changes the answer, for the client asking what they can write off. Blog: closing costs in Ontario, what first-time buyers actually pay. Breaks down the taxes, legal fees, and adjustments due at closing, roughly 1.5% to 4% of the price with land transfer tax the biggest line, for a buyer budgeting past the down payment. Hot off the press: Ownright in the news A look at where Ownright's data and perspective showed up in the press this cycle: Canadian Mortgage Professional – Why economic anxiety is stalling home deals. Cited our 2026 Operators Report finding that two in five brokers name recession fear, not rates, as the top deal-killer. RENX – The first-time buyer profile is changing. Joel's monthly column on how the average first-time buyer is now 40 and far more cautious, and why steady guidance beats big predictions. Market snapshot: the market tightens as listings dry up GTA sales jumped while listings kept thinning GTA home sales reached 6,770 in June, up 9.4% from a year earlier (TRREB). New listings fell to 17,282, down 12.9% year-over-year, so more buyers are chasing fewer homes. Prices are still down, but the annual gap is closing The average selling price was $1,058,658 in June, down 3.9% year-over-year, though the annual decline keeps shrinking (TRREB). Seasonally adjusted, both the average price and the MLS Home Price Index edged up from May, an early sign of firming. Our take: this is the clearest sign yet that the GTA market is tightening. Sales are climbing while listings shrink, and prices, still down on the year, have begun to firm month over month. With the Bank of Canada widely expected to hold again on July 15, the pressure this half looks more like scarce supply than rates. s -->s --> Client spotlight: in their words As a past practicing lawyer I was interested and skeptical about a newer process to purchase real estate... Ownright's use of a portal and prompt communication was a delightful surprise. I had a tight closing and move in schedule and a small hiccup where the receiving lawyer had not attached funds to the file. This caused us some grief but we got prompt service from Ben who communicated with the other lawyer and sorted it out quickly and enabled us to move in on time... This was a lot cheaper than other options but still of high quality. It is the way of the future. A Asheet Buyer · Google review · July 2026 The Ownright advantage Have a client in need of a real estate lawyer? We'd love to support them. Refer a client now About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Ownright Inc. 545 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1M1 You're receiving this because you subscribed to Realty Check. Unsubscribe