Toronto real estate booked another scorching hot month for detached home sales. According to statistics from the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), strong demand for detached homes continued into February. Generally speaking, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) saw higher prices, less inventory, and more sales.
Prices Rose Across Toronto
Yes, detached prices rose yet again in Toronto. Across the TREB region, the average of sales prices was $1,205,815, 32.5% higher than the same time last year. The 416 area reached an average of $1,573,622, a 29.8% increase. Prices in the 905 grew just a little faster, where the average of price was $1,106,201 – a 35.4% increase from the same time last year. Both regions saw pretty steep climbs in prices.
To give you a better idea how prices were distributed in Toronto, let’s break that down just a little. Central Toronto saw the highest prices, with 253 sales seeing a median price of $2,110,000. West Toronto was less than half of that, with its 253 sales having a median price of $980,000. East Toronto booked the lowest median price, with its 268 sales working out to $953,500. So there is some statistical skewing, with detached homes in Central Toronto selling for more than twice the price of the West and East ends.
Toronto Average Detached Sale Price
Inventory Dropped Across The GTA
Inventory dropped across the GTA – yet again. February ended with 2,624 active listings, a 39% decline from the same time last year. At the same time, new listings declined 6.5% to 4,825. The increasingly scarce inventory is being attributed largely to buyer gridlock, where existing buyers can’t sell because a step up has become too expensive.
Sales Increased In The 905. But Dropped In The 416
Sales increase across the GTA, but not in Toronto proper. The whole TREB region logged 3,721 sales, a 3% increase from the same time last year. Most of those numbers came from the burbs, where 2,928 of those sales were made – a 6% increase from the same time last year. The 416 conversely, saw a decline of 6.8%, logging only 793 sales. Declining sales in Toronto are somewhat expected since there was a significant decline in inventory.
TREB February Detached Sales
Higher prices, lower inventory, and mixed sales give buyers a little to think about. Do they risk prices going higher, pricing detached homes out of reach for most people in the city. Or do they jump in and risk paying over paying when the country is predicted to hit a financial crisis next year? Tweet us your thoughts, we’d love to hear them.
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Photo via John Vetterli
Garbage in, garbage out.
Put the wrong data in, get the wrong data out.
The housing market in Canada will be driven entirely by how much money is left in the Bank of Mom and Dad.
How much room and borrowing power do the PARENTS have on their houses? They nay have equity, but can they borrow on it? I think the low-hanging fruit has been picked.
When the Bank of Mom and Dad closes, so go the chances of the kids buying a house.