Toronto housing prices hit new highs to start the year

If you thought that Toronto housing prices might come back down to earth in January, a rude awakening was in store to start 2017. The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) just released its numbers for the first month of the year, and it's more of what we witnessed in 2016.

"January 2017 picked up where 2016 left off: sales were up on a year-over-year basis while the number of new listings was down by double-digit annual rates for most major home types," reads the monthly report from TREB.

Toronto home prices were up 21.8 per cent in January on a year-over-year basis. Put differently, on average it cost $140,552 more to buy a home compared to 12 months ago.

The price increases are driven by a variety of factors, but the most significant is a lack of supply.

“The number of active listings...at the end of January was essentially half of what was reported as available at the same time last year," says TREB.

Until supply issues are addressed or the government decides to intervene, you can trust that the Toronto real estate market will continue to see home prices driven further and further out of reach.