Expect listings in the GTA to continue dropping
By Lucas on Jul 06, 2016
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) released its June 2016 resale housing figures, announcing that the spring was capped off with a very strong month of sales.
Last June, there were 12,794 transactions reported through the MLS, which is a 7.5% year-over-year increase. Once again, listings decreased by 3.8%. 2016 has become the year of strong demand and dwindling supply in both the resale and new housing market in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
"As I start my term as TREB President, we are certainly in an interesting environment for ownership housing,” says new TREB President Larry Cerqua. “There is no doubt that demand is at a record level, but would-be home buyers continue to face an uphill battle against a constrained supply of listings, which has perpetuated strong price growth. Buyers and sellers alike continue to benefit from the value a REALTOR® brings to a transaction.”
With listings dropping, many homebuyers are turning to the new home market, but the new low-rise inventory has dropped to a record low and we’re even starting to see the sale of high-rise units outpace new inventory.
"As the federal, provincial and local levels of government discuss housing policy in the coming months, issues affecting the lack of supply in the GTA should be of paramount importance,” adds Cerqua. “TREB will be undertaking, and making public, results of additional research in the second half of 2016, with the goal of proactively adding to the housing policy discussion.”
The average selling price of a resale home in the GTA (for all housing types) went up 16.8% compared to the same period last year, hitting $746,546. As expected, low-rise homes (detached, semis, and townhomes) led the way for price growth.
"When TREB surveyed consumer intentions for 2016, we found that the majority of GTA households who were likely to purchase a home continued to be pointed towards some form of ground oriented housing,” explains Jason Mercer, TREB's Director of Market Analysis. “This is why we continue to see strong competition between buyers in many neighbourhoods where supply remains constrained.”
According to Trimart Research Corporation, there are no signs that builders will be releasing new collections or opening more new sites than usual during this traditionally slow summer season. Expect prices to keep rising and supply to continue to fall for the next few months in both the resale and new housing markets.
