October Market Statistics

October was another record-setting month for the Toronto region’s blazing real estate market as a continued scarcity of new listings helped push the average year-over-year selling price of a house or condo up 19.3 per cent to $1.16 million.

It was also the second-highest October for home sales, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) board said on Wednesday. Last month’s 9,783 transactions fell 6.9 per cent or 720 sales below last year’s unprecedented 10,503.

But, for the fifth month in a row, the number of new listings declined on a year-over-year basis, dropping by about a third in October, said the real estate board’s chief market analyst, Jason Mercer.

 “If you think of sales as a share of available listings, that’s been trending upwards. So there’s more competition between people who wanted to purchase a home and that has sustained very strong price growth,” he said.

While sales in detached, semi-detached and town homes saw double-digit declines of between 11 and 18 per cent, condo sales soared nearly 34 per cent in Toronto and 20.5 per cent in the surrounding municipalities.

House prices continued to lead the market as they have throughout the pandemic, but condos also showed double-digit price growth in October, up 13 per cent regionwide and 17 per cent in the 905 areas outside Toronto.

“Whereas the lowrise segments of the market were already tightening up at the end of last year and into 2021, the condo segment really started tightening this year, so now you have a scenario where every market segment is once again very much in a seller’s market situation where you’re seeing a lot of competition between buyers,” said Mercer.

 Detached houses hit an average price of $1.54 million in the GTA, soaring 27.7 per cent compared to last October. The 905 still showed the biggest percentage gain with houses selling for about 30 per cent more than they did a year ago, with an average price of $1.46 million. Detached homes in Toronto continued to be the most expensive residential properties, selling for an average of $1.78 million.

Mercer said rising interest rates, something the Bank of Canada signalled last week could happen as early as spring, could push some home buyers to the sidelines if they are on the edge of being able to afford a purchase.

He said that strong demand for ownership and rental housing will likely continue over the next couple of years.

“But, if you look at how tight the market is today, there will still be a lot of households who are actively searching for a home even with higher borrowing costs. Adding to that, over the next year, we’re set to see much stronger population growth as borders start to open more and make up for lost time on the immigration front,” he said.

If the Toronto region wants to continue its upward economic trajectory, it needs to be able to house its diverse workforce. But boosting the housing supply takes years, said Mercer. It takes a lot of collaboration among different levels of government.

“We need to look carefully at what different parties and different candidates are saying over the next year as we move towards the provincial and local elections in Ontario to see what that collaboration could like, to streamline the (approvals) process to see more supply come on line,” he said.

On Tuesday, the industry association that represents Toronto area homebuilders reported that new construction homes hit a price record in September, up 33.5 per cent annually to a benchmark of $1.57 million.

Info from The Toronto Star