TREB Foresees Stabilization of GTA Resale Market
By Lucas on Jul 17, 2014
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) released their mid-month resale housing market figures for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In the first two weeks of July 2014, there were 3,891 sales reported through the TorontoMLS system, a year-over-year increase of 11.6 percent.
New listings also saw a jump compared to the same period last year, but only by 9.7 percent. “There are two key takeaways from the July mid-month results. First, given the continuation of strong sales growth, it is clear that buyers are still attracted to affordable home ownership options in the GTA. Second, if new listings growth begins to outpace sales growth, we could start to see an improvement in the overall supply of homes for sale. This would be a relief for some buyers who have been hard pressed to find a home that meets their needs in this tight market,” said TREB President Paul Etherington.
Bidding wars have plagued the resale market since the beginning of 2014, driving the average selling price through the roof. Hopefully, inventory catches up soon and makes things easier for new homebuyers. If the inventory levels don’t see a surge, the new construction market is always an option!
GTA resale market average prices
The average selling price for the first 14 days of July was $549,174, which is 8 percent higher than the same time last year. The largest price increases were for semis and townhomes.
Another statistic that stands out in TREB’s report is that the average selling price for a detached home in the 416 region was at $865,635. While this is a year-over-year increase of 8.8 percent, it is significantly lower than May 2014’s average of $965,670. There was a time when we thought the average selling price was going to break $1 million!
“Annual average price growth remains in the high single-digits or low double-digits for many home types across the GTA. It is possible that we could see more choice for buyers in the second half of 2014 in the form of increased new listings. A sustained increase in choice for buyers could serve to gradually ease the pace of price growth in some market segments,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.
The fact that inventory levels show signs of rising and the average price of detached homes is slowing is a good sign of a stabilization in the resale housing market.
