Homes sales crashed in Toronto last month

Sales of homes declined steeply across the GTA last month compared to February of 2017, according to The Toronto Real Estate Board – as did the prices they sold for. 

But take that with a grain of salt. What goes up must come down.

TREB's most-recent monthly market figures report, released on Tuesday, shows that home sales fell by 35 per cent, year over year, in February of 2018.

The over average selling price was also down by 12.4 per cent during the same time period, but, as TREB points out, Toronto did see a major price spike in the first quarter of 2017.

"It is important to note that February’s average price [$767,818] remained 12 per cent higher than the average reported for February 2016, which represents an annualized increase well above the rate of inflation for the past two years," reads the real estate board's report.

Almost 8,000 residential transactions were reported by realtors in February of 2017, making this February's sales total of 5,175 homes seem piddly by comparison.

The number of new listings entered into TREB's MLS system last month (10,520), however, saw a 7.3 per cent increase over February of 2017 (9,801.)

Still, says TREB, this is well below what's been average for the month of February over the past 10 years.

"Listings supply will likely remain below average in many neighbourhoods in the GTA," said TREB's Jason Mercer in the report, "which, over the long-term, could further hamper affordability."