House and condo sale surge defies summer slowdown
Average price jumps 7.4 per cent in a year, Toronto Real Estate Board says, and sales leap 15.4 per cent.
House and condo sales in the GTA kept rising in June, ignoring the traditional summer slowdown.
House and condo sales in the GTA kept rising in June, ignoring the traditional summer slowdown.
By: Susan Pigg Business Reporter, Published on Fri Jul 04 2014
GTA house prices – and sales – continued to soar in June, traditionally the beginning of the summer slowdown, as the average sale price of a house hit $568,953, up 7.4 per cent over a year ago, according to figures released by the Toronto Real Estate Board Friday.
Sales were up 15.4 per cent during the same period as buyers continued to jockey and bully bid their way to purchases that grew somewhat less frantic thanks to an 8.3 per cent increase in the number of new listings.
Overall inventory for sale, however, was still down by almost 7 per cent over a year ago as homeowners just opt to stay put where they are.
Condos have seen a surge in sales this spring as first-time buyers, in particular, turn to the form of housing that remains most affordable, and in highest supply, in the face of house prices that just continue to climb out of sight.
Condo were in top demand across the GTA, with sales up 20 per cent, far outstripping detached and semi-detached houses. across the GTA – 21.4 per cent in the City of Toronto and 16.7 per cent in the 905 regions – with prices up an average of 6.8 per cent across the GTA.
The average price of a resale condo in June in the 416 region was $390,569, up 6.3 per cent year over year, compared to $309,719 in the 905 regions where the average sale price was up 7.5 per cent.
Semi-detached homes were also in top demand – in large part a reflection of how far detached homes have skyrocketed out of reach in recent years – with the average sale price up almost 16.1 per cent, year over year, to an average of $672,725 in the 416 region and $448,531 in the 905 regions.
Detached homes, which had edged perilously close to $1 million in the 416 back in the spring when higher-end new infill homes saw a spike in sales, slipped again in June, to an average sale price of $921,127 in the City of Toronto and $641,972 in the suburban regions.
Townhouses and row houses saw sales climb 14.5 per cent across the GTA, with average prices up 10.9 per cent to $485,273 in the City of Toronto and up 7 per cent, to $402,261 in the 905 regions, according to TREB.
But the lack of enough houses to meet demand remains a persistent problem, even with the uptick in new listings in June, notes TREB.
There were just two months of inventory left in June – a key indicator that the GTA remains a strong sellers’ market. Six months of inventory is considered a balanced market.