Toronto real estate getting desperate as homes sit on market for ages

The rocky road for Toronto real estate continues as property owners face a dire new reality where sales are falling flat, values are inching downwards, new developments are at a standstill and units that would have once sparked a bidding war are now near-impossible to sell.

Though this summer has brought glimmers of a rebound as far as sales volumes — a number which, as recently as May, has been down double-digit percentages compared to the same time last year — there are still a substantial number of properties sitting stagnant on the market, and, per the latest report from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), they are taking progressively longer to sell, if they sell at all.

In August, 14,038 new condos, townhouses, semi-detached houses and standalone homes came to market across the GTA (9.4 per cent more than in August 2024), making for a total of an astounding 27,495 active listings — less than the 32,082 homes that were available back in June, but still 22.4 per cent more than last August.

At the same time, the number of homes that changed hands over the course of the month rose 2.3 per cent year-over-year, and the price of the average home declined 5.2 per cent. Looking monthly, both activity and prices have slowly but steadily fallen month-over-month (from 6,244 and $1,120,879, respectively, in May to 5,211 and $1,022,143 in August).

Another bad omen within TRREB's data: the fact that the average length of time a home is up for sale keeps rising to new heights.

Chart from TRREB's August 2025 Market Watch Report.

In May, the average LDOM, or "listing days on market," was 25, while the average PDOM, or "property days on market" (which includes when the same home is relisted) was 39. Both of these stats were significantly higher than the same time the year prior, marking increases of 31.6 per cent and 44.4 per cent, respectively.

And, both figures have only climbed further as the months have gone on, hitting an average of 33 LDOM and 49 PDOM for the typical GTA home last month (13.8 per cent and 11.4 per cent higher than August 2024, which itself was 40 per cent and 57.1 per cent higher than August 2023).

But, TRREB hopes that a further easing of interest rates will help bring life back to what has become an extremely troubled, almost nonsensical landscape, given the drastic population boom the country has seen in recent years and timeless interest in home ownership.

"A household earning the average income in the GTA is still finding it challenging to afford the monthly mortgage payment associated with the purchase of an average priced home. This is even with lower borrowing costs and selling prices over the past year," the report reads.

"Further relief in borrowing costs would see an increased number of buyers move off the sidelines to take advantage of today's well-supplied market...  we have seen a modest increase in home sales, [and] with the economy slowing and inflation under control, additional interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada could help offset the impact of tariffs."