There were nearly 10,000 home sales in the GTA last September
By Lucas on Oct 05, 2016
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) released its resale housing market figures for September 2016, announcing that there were nearly 10,000 transactions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) reported through the MLS system.
To be exact, there were 9,902 sales last month, which is a 21.5% year-over-year increase. Sales growth was steady for all home types, but was slightly slower for detached homes and semis; likely due to a drop in listings.
“We continued to see strong demand for ownership housing up against a short supply of listings in the Greater Toronto Area in September,” says TREB President Larry Cerqua. “The sustained lack of inventory in many neighbourhoods across the GTA continued to underpin high rates of price growth for all home types.”
The average selling price went up 20.4% to $755,755. TREB point out that its MLS Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark went up by 18%. The HPI allows for an “apples-to-apples” comparison of home sales, while the average price can be influenced by market conditions and the different types of homes sold.
Detached homes in the 416 continue to be the most expensive housing type in the GTA with an average selling price of $1,294,482, which is a 23% increase compared to last year. Detached homes in the 905 area aren’t as expensive, but the price growth is more aggressive. In September, the average selling price went up 26.6% to $928,414.
“The Toronto Real Estate Board will be closely monitoring how the recent changes to Federal mortgage lending guidelines and capital gains tax exemption rules impact the housing market in the Greater Toronto Area,” says Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis. “While these changes are pointed at the demand for ownership housing, it is important to note that much of the upward pressure on home prices in the GTA has been based on the declining inventory of homes available for sale.”
The largest year-over-year increase last month was for the sale of condo units in the 905 area. There were 793 sales, which is 32.4% higher than last year. For all of the GTA, the average selling price of a condo unit went up by 9.3% to $422,002. This is probably the healthiest price growth out of any housing type in the GTA.
As Sam Reiss, President of Newinhomes.com, points out in his feature post this week, the capital gains exemption and new mortgage lending guidelines will take effect October 17th.
Will these changes actually cool the housing market?
