GTA REALTORS® RELEASE JULY RESALE HOUSING MARKET FIGURES

GTA REALTORS® RELEASE JULY RESALE HOUSING MARKET FIGURES

TORONTO, August 3, 2017 — Toronto Real Estate Board President Tim Syrianos announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 5,921 residential transactions through TREB’s MLS® System in July 2017.  This result was down by 40.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis, led by the detached market segment – both in the City of Toronto and surrounding regions.

While sales were down, the number of new listings reported were only slightly (+5.1 per cent) above last year’s level.

“A recent release from the Ontario government confirmed TREB’s own research which found that foreign buyers represented a small proportion of overall home buying activity in the GTA.  Clearly, the year-over-year decline we experienced in July had more to do with psychology, with would-be home buyers on the sidelines waiting to see how market conditions evolve,” said Mr. Syrianos.

“Summer market statistics are often not the best indicators of housing market conditions.  We generally see an uptick in sales following Labour Day, as a greater cross-section of would-be buyers and sellers start to consider listing and/or purchasing a home.  As we move through the fall, we should start to get a better sense of the impacts of the Fair Housing Plan and higher borrowing costs,” said TREB CEO John DiMichele.

The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark price was up by 18 per cent on a year-over-year basis.  However, the Composite Benchmark was down by 4.6 per cent relative to June.  Monthly MLS® HPI declines were driven more so by single-family home types.  The average selling price for all home types combined was up by five per cent year-over-year to $746,218.

“Home buyers benefitted from more choice in the market this July compared to the same time last year.  This was reflected in home prices and home price growth.  Looking forward, if we do see some would-be home buyers move off the sidelines and back into the market without a similar increase in new listings, we could see some of this newfound choice erode.  The recent changes in the sales and price trends have masked the fact that housing supply remains an issue in the GTA,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

 

Summary of TorontoMLS Sales and Average Price July 1 – 31, 2017
2017 2016
Sales Average Price New Listings Sales Average Price New Listings
City of Toronto (“416”) 2,303 759,441 4,499 3,485 690,597 4,859
Rest of GTA (“905”) 3,618 737,801 9,672 6,444 721,218 8,623
GTA 5,921 746,218 14,171 9,929 710,471 13,482

 

TorontoMLS Sales & Average Price  By Home Type July 1 – 31, 2017
Sales Average Price
416 905 Total 416 905 Total
Detached 556 1,878 2,434 1,304,288 910,348 1,000,336
Yr./Yr. % Change -41.7% -48.9% -47.4% 8.5% 2.4% 4.9%
Semi-Detached 169 414 583 869,227 636,844 704,207
Yr./Yr. % Change -39.9% -38.1% -38.6% 1.3% 8.0% 5.2%
Townhouse 212 762 974 707,269 581,541 608,907
Yr./Yr. % Change -38.2% -36.1% -36.5% 20.7% 11.3% 13.5%
Condo Apartment 1,345 495 1,840 532,502 418,191 501,750
Yr./Yr. % Change -28.3% -36.5% -30.7% 24.6% 16.6% 23.2%

 

July 2017 Year-Over-Year Per Cent Change in the MLS® HPI
Composite (All Types) Single-Family Detached Single-Family Attached Townhouse Apartment
TREB Total 18.00% 14.93% 13.54% 25.29% 27.87%
Halton Region 13.96% 11.59% 12.10% 23.70% 20.79%
Peel Region 18.73% 15.59% 15.23% 23.83% 28.58%
City of Toronto 20.10% 13.12% 12.88% 26.54% 29.36%
York Region 15.12% 14.88% 11.22% 29.39% 23.67%
Durham Region 20.88% 20.68% 17.87% 25.54% 24.42%
Orangeville 26.91% 27.08% 27.03% – –
South Simcoe County1 19.93% 19.35% 21.62% – –
Source: Toronto Real Estate Board 1South Simcoe includes Adjala-Tosorontio, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Essa, Innisfil and New Tecumseth