TORONTO - Toronto’s housing market continued to bounce higher in October, with prices rising the most in almost two years amid dwindling supply.
The benchmark price, which accounts for differences in the type of homes sold, rose 5.8% from a year ago to C$810,900 ($616,607), the Toronto Real Estate Board said in a report Tuesday. That’s the biggest jump since December 2017 and takes it to within about C$4,300 of the record set in mid-2017.
“As market conditions in the GTA have steadily tightened throughout 2019, we have seen an acceleration in the annual rate of price growth,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s chief market analyst. “We will likely see stronger price growth moving forward if sales growth continues to outpace listings growth, leading to more competition between home buyers.”
Sales jumped 14% to 8,491 units over the same period, with detached and townhouses leading the biggest gains, the board said. New listings dropped 9.6% and active listings fell almost 19%.
Toronto’s housing market has began bouncing back in recent months after almost two years of adjustment to higher taxes and tighter regulations to tame soaring prices and debt. At the same time, demand for homes continues to grow in Canada’s biggest city amid a supply crunch and lower interest rates. Vancouver home sales rose by 45% in October compared to last year, though benchmark prices fell 6.4%.
On a monthly basis, sales fell a seasonally adjusted 2.9% from September, the biggest monthly decline since February.
The average price of a home rose 5.5% to C$852,142, the highest this year, with a detached home rising to C$1,049,300. That’s still below the peak of nearly C$921,000 set in April 2017. (FA)
