No one is buying new homes in Toronto anymore as sales plummet below '90s crash

Even if you're not at all involved, or even interested in Toronto real estate, the sales trends of the last while have been absolutely fascinating, with owners, investors, developers, and realtors left stranded at sea as the market is flipped on its head.

The conflation of a brutal economy, rampant unemployment, the ongoing trade war with the U.S., higher interest rates (which are, thankfully, finally on the decline following a peak through 2023 and 2024), and eternally overvalued property has led the GTA to its current point: a months-long standoff in which would-be buyers are completely steering clear of the market.

It's caused home sales numbers to tank to record lows, listing volumes to skyrocket to record highs, and available homes to sit up for sale for far longer.

It's also pushing developers to put a decided halt on new construction, especially when it comes to the condo segment, which is performing worse than it has in decades.

According to the latest figures, sales activity for new homes in particular — condos, townhomes, semi-detached and detached houses inclusive — has fallen so low that we're now putting the 1990s housing crash to shame.

A report released by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) on Wednesday states that a mere 359 new homes were sold across the GTA in the entire month of July, which is a far cry from the 1,941 units that would be standard for the month.

The group continues to sound the alarm over the "severe" market slowdown, which it notes has brought an extended period of an "exceedingly low" number of homes changing hands. July's sales stats were 89 per cent below the 10-year average for new condos, and 60 per cent under the 10-year average for single-family homes.

"The protracted nature of this market has now surpassed the severe downturn in new home sales during the early 1990s," BILD writes. "We need concerted action to address the crisis that is stalling out new supply and compounding the challenges in the GTA housing market."

Meanwhile, the deluge of properties up for grabs serves as "the highest inventory level seen to date," which can be seen as a bit confusing given that all levels of government continue to emphasize the need to rush more new housing supply to keep up with immigration levels and ever-present demand.

In the face of all this, somehow, prices for new condos have hardly budged (sitting at a benchmark of $1,029,527), while the cost of the standard new single-family home has slightly (by 6.1 per cent year-over-year, to $1,488,940) — part of the reason many have eschewed purchasing.

This new real estate environment continues to buck the long-held belief that real estate in and around the city is a good investment, one that is still perpetuated by the baby boomer generation and industry stakeholders who are hoping that the heyday will return.