Wait a minute here. I thought we were in the midst of a recession? Last month housing sales in Toronto were up 64% from the same month last year. Everyone I talk to says paying the asking price or lower for a house in this city simply isn’t happening.

A friend of mine has been looking to buy a house in the next neighbourhood over from mine. He found one he really liked and talked to his broker about an offer. The broker suggested he make an offer well over the asking price – which he did. That offer wasn’t close to being enough to buy the house in question.

We’ve been at the new Anchovy World Headquarters for almost a year and a half. We found our house pre-recession, but at that time, there were no line-ups to buy, no bidding wars or any of that kind of business. Now, we’re living in a time of much greater economic uncertainty and we’re in a seller’s market. At the start of the recession, I read about credit becoming harder to come by, but the money must be flowing smoothly now to enable people to bid against one another for homes.

I’m glad we aren’t house-hunting now.