Home sales are climbing back up across Toronto
The rebound is real for Toronto's housing market, according to freshly-released sales data.
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) revealed in its monthly Market Watch report on Thursday that residential sales continued to soar throughout the month of August across the GTA.
A total of 7,711 sales were logged through TREB's MLS system last month, representing a 13.4 per cent increase over what we saw in August of 2018. This applies to all home types — not just condos, which we all well know have been selling like hot cakes in recent months.
The average selling price for all home types across the region is up a more modest 3.6 per cent, year over year, landing at $792,611 in August of 2019. In the City of Toronto proper, the average selling price is now $818,175.
"GTA-wide sales were up on a year-over-year basis for all major market segments, with annual rates of sales growth strongest for low-rise home types, including detached houses," noted TREB president Michael Collins in Thursday's release.
"This reflects the fact that demand for more expensive home types was very low in 2018 and has rebounded to a certain degree in 2019, albeit not back to the record levels experienced in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017."
Toronto Real Estate Board President Michael Collins announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 7,711 residential sales through TREB’s MLS® System in August 2019, a 13.4 per cent increase compared to 6,797 sales reported in August 2018.
— TREB (@TREBhome) September 5, 2019
https://t.co/w6bQ0xXJj5 pic.twitter.com/Eg85TJF5fT
Collins credits the OSFI mortgage stress test for keeping the market from overheating, but TREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer does warn that competition is getting more fierce between buyers, thanks to chronically low supply levels.
"This year's market through August has been characterized by receding listings and increasing sales relative to 2018," said Mercer. "Competition between buyers has increased, which has led to stronger annual rates of price growth, most notably during this past spring and summer."
Mercer says that if demand continues to increase faster than the supply of listings, "the annual rate of price growth will accelerate further."
Great news for prospective sellers. Bad news for everybody else.
