There were nearly 10,000 home sales across the GTA in July
By Lucas on Aug 04, 2016
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) released its monthly resale housing market figures for July 2016, stating that the rapid price growth across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
In July, there were 9,989 sales reported through the MLS, which is the highest amount of sales ever for July. While sales were up, listings were down, continuing the “troubling trend” of homebuyers having a difficult time finding the right home for them.
“GTA REALTORS® have been working very hard on behalf of their buyer clients to help them find a home meeting their needs. Unfortunately, listings for single-detached and semi-detached houses and townhouses continue to be in short supply,” says TREB President Larry Cerqua. “The result has been an increase in pent-up demand and annual rates of price increases well above the rate of inflation. Housing policy is now top of mind for all levels of government. Policy makers need to be focusing on solutions to the sustained lack of low-rise inventory throughout the GTA.”
For all home types, the average selling price went up 16.6% on a year over-year basis to $709,825. In the 416, the average price of a detached home in July was $1,202,753, which is a 20.7% increase. While detached homes in the 905 are relatively more affordable, their price growth was slightly more aggressive, rising by 21.9% to $888,565.
As usual, the most affordable home type was condo units. The average selling price of a condo unit in the 416 went up 8.2% to $427,074 and up by 13% in the 905 to $358,291.
“Relatively strong labour market conditions, above-inflation average income growth, and record low borrowing costs have kept many households confident about purchasing a home,” says Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis. “As long as very strong buying intentions are up against an extreme shortage of listings, expect home price growth to greatly outpace the rate of inflation.”
As we enter the busy fall season and more inventory becomes available in both the new home and resale markets, it is possible that price growth will slow, but we’re not holding our breath.
