Toronto home prices take another tumble

Are houses getting cheaper in Toronto, or is it just TREB?

New data released this morning by the Toronto Real Estate Board shows that the price of GTA homes dropped roughly 12.4 per cent last month, compared to what they were in April 2017.

Prices fell from an average of $918,184 to just $804,584 in one year's time.

This might sound like awesome news to potential buyers, but it's important to note that houses were way more expensive than usual at this time last year.

"While average selling prices have not climbed back to last year's record peak, April's price level represents a substantial gain over the past decade," explained TREB President Tim Syrianos in today's release.

April Market Report: The great majority of buyers are purchasing a home within which to live. This means these buyers are treating home ownership as a long-term investment. Read complete TREB market report for April here: https://t.co/qBUGflvI1W pic.twitter.com/f955slKhxD

— TREB (@TREBhome) May 3, 2018

The real estate board notes that "after preliminary seasonal adjustment," the month-over-month change in selling prices was actually quite minimal for April of 2018, with the average price decreasing by just 0.2 per cent since March.

Home sales figures are still way lower than what we saw last year at this time, thanks to cooling measures like the Ontario foreign buyers tax and the federal government's mortgage stress-test.

TREB's director of market analysis Jason Mercer says not to worry—the comparison between last year's and this year's figures masks the fact that market conditions point toward growth for the second half of 2018.

"Once we are past the current policy-based volatility home owners should expect to see the resumption of a moderate and sustained pace of price growth," he said in the release. "[I]n line with a strong local economy and steady population growth."