This year will go down as a banner year for the real estate market in Toronto. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every month has been a record breaking month in terms of number of sales with condos driving the market momentum like never before. Toronto is now the number one city in North America for condo sales. Trying to buy a 1 bedroom condo in this city has become one of the city's greatest challenges, on par with climbing the stairs at the CN Tower or finishing a burger at Dangerous Dan's. So who are all these people lining up to buy condos?

One of the things I love about my job is the fact that Torontonians love talking about Real Estate. People are passionate about this city and it shows in that everyone seems to have an opinion on what is happening in the real estate market and where things are heading.

The problem is, opinions and a hot real estate market don't mix very well. Maybe it is our inherent Canadian defeatist attitude but any discussion about real estate in Toronto inevitably turns into, "There is too much speculation in the condo market therefore the market is going to crash". Reality check: Cold hard facts and raw data are the only things that can help tell us what the market is doing and predict where the market is going.

Finally we have some numbers. Market research firm, Urbanation, released a report this week that stated only 30% of pre-construction condo purchasers were investors. This is in sharp contrast to the ambiguous figure of 60-85% that has been floating around in several reputable *cough* media outlets lately.

When it comes to real estate, rampant speculation is often a sign that the end is nigh. Assuming this number of 30% is accurate, this is good news for the condo market in Toronto.