The real estate market in Toronto is complicated this year, and there are no easy answers, but there is good news about the market health, and the prices that we could see this fall.
On the one hand, the Toronto Star reported, based on July’s Toronto Real Estate Board report (TREB), that the average price of homes sold since April have dropped by $173,000, from $919,449 to $746,216.
Year-over-year prices though are still up from July 2016 by 5%, so the price changes so far are still positive, and as the Star article noted, “It’s the kind of annual mid-single digit increase that indicates a return to healthy market conditions following months of record price escalation, according to the industry.”
However, the number of homes sold did drop by 40.4% compared to the same time last year.
These changes follow a year where potential home buyers have been possibly waiting to see how the market stabilizes after changes to apply an additional tax to foreign buyers in the market.
The good news, however, is that condo sales have been booming in Toronto. According to the Globe and Mail, sales of new condos were up 62% from 2016.
For the second quarter of 2017, sales hit 12,138 units, according to BMO Nesbitt Burns.
“More project launches surely helped, but, at the very least, this report underscores continued strong underlying demand for affordable housing in the Toronto area,” said Sal Guatieri, a BMO senior economist, in a note.
Additionally, resale on existing condos have not shown the same stress that we’ve seen in detached home sales.
And on top of all of that news, the last two weeks have shown signs that the market may be getting energetic again.