Got homebuyer’s remorse? Regret sets in for some as heated housing markets cool

Realtors and lawyers in Toronto and Vancouver say they have noticed buyers looking at what options they have to get out of a purchase and sellers hoping to ensure one goes through.

A wave of buyer’s remorse is taking shape in several heated real estate markets, after housing prices started dropping and the number of sales slowed over the last two months.

The country experienced a 25.7 per cent drop in the number of homes sold over the last year and a 3.8 per cent slide in housing prices between March and April, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday. The average home price last month totalled $741,517.

Such numbers have prompted some sellers to explore lawsuits to ensure transactions move forward and other purchasers to worry about the value of pre-sale properties they bought years ago but have yet to take possession of.

“With today’s real estate prices, there’s really no option but to go all in and if you’re going all in, and then suddenly you’re realizing that perhaps you made a bad bet and there’s a way out of that bet, you’re going to do whatever you can to get out,” said Mark Morris, a Toronto real estate lawyer.

In recent weeks, he has seen nine cases where buyers want to back out of deals but on Monday alone was approached by three sellers keen to use legal channels to keep purchasers from walking away.

Morris doesn’t call the encounters a trend because it’s unclear how one case of that nature every few months.

“Purchasers are looking at the existing crisis, and in the best of times, they feel they overpaid, but now they have objective proof that they’ve done so because markets have started to pummel and fall and really shows no signs of slowing down,” said Morris.

“Many of those buyers are faced with the option of moving forward or upping and walking.”