Toronto real estate’s mixed market extended to detached homes last month. Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) numbers show detached prices fell in August. The decline in prices was accompanied by a rise in sales as well as inventory.
Toronto Detached Real Estate Drops Over $8,900
The price of a typical detached home fell across Greater Toronto. TREB reported a detached benchmark of $914,900 in August, down $8,900 from the month before. The City of Toronto saw the detached benchmark fall to $1,100,000, down $12,300 lower. Benchmark prices are adjusted for size and quality adjustments, which make it preferred by the industry.
Toronto Detached Benchmark Price
The price of a typical detached home across the Toronto Real Estate Board, in Canadian dollars.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
There’s a little good news for detached owners, the annual change actually improved. The TREB benchmark is -1.94% lower than last year, shrinking the annual price change by a little. The City of Toronto is 0.04% higher than the same month last year, coming out of last month’s negative changes. OK, neither of those numbers were anything to get excited about. But they are something for the rainbow and unicorns crowd to cling on to.
Toronto Detached Benchmark Percent Change
The 12 month percent change of a typical detached home across the Toronto Real Estate Board.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
The median sale price of detached homes in Greater Toronto showed improvements. TREB reported a median sale price of $836,750 in August, up 2.20% from last year. The City of Toronto median sale price hit $928,000, up 2.54% from last year. Median sale prices aren’t adjusted for size or quality, so they aren’t great for telling you how much you’ll pay for a home. Instead it’s best used as an indicator of dollar flows, which improved.
Toronto Detached Average Sale Price
The average sale price of a detached house in the Toronto Real Estate Board.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
The average price of a detached home is higher across Greater Toronto. TREB reported an average sale price of $977,187 in August, up 1.2% compared to last year. The City of Toronto saw an increase to $1,244,275, up 4.9% from last year. The average isn’t adjusted for size or quality either, so it’s also best used as an indicator of dollar flow.
Toronto Detached Average Sale Price Change
The 12 month percent change of average sale price across across TREB.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Toronto Detached Home Sales Spike Over 12%
One of the most interesting numbers this month is sales, which are much higher than last year. TREB reported 3,001 detached sales in August, up 17.1% compared to the same month last year. The City of Toronto represented 619 of those sales, up 12.3% from last year. The catch is last year was one of the worst years for detached sales, so the win is a mild one. However, it’s a win.
Toronto Detached Sales Vs. New Listings
The total number of detached sales, compared to the number of new detached listings per month.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Toronto Detached Inventory Rises Over 9%
The number of new listings for detached homes increased across Greater Toronto. TREB reported 6,167 new listings in August, up 8.24% from last year. The City of Toronto represented 1,071 of those new listings, up 8.29% from last year. The increase bucks the recent trend of a lower number of new listings.
Even with sales outpacing new listings, total detached inventory still printed large increases. TREB reported 10,563 active detached listings in August, up 14.62% from last year. The City of Toronto represented 1,735 of those listings, up 9.53% from last year. The suburbs saw higher growth than the city, but neither displayed scarce inventory.
Toronto Active Detached Listings
The total number of detached listings available.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Toronto’s detached market saw lower prices, higher sales, and higher inventory. If that seems weird, that’s because the sales indicator is a little wonky. Last year Ontario faced policy changes that caused buyers to take a “wait and see” approach. The pause in buying made last year’s sales number come in much lower than they would have been. That’s indicated by total inventory rising significantly, even though sales had massive growth. Massive growth against an artificially low month isn’t the positive indicator it might otherwise be.
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There’s detached homes on my street that have removed the yard sign, with active MLS listings. Owners are clinging to their prices, even though it’s taking an embarrassingly long time.
Prices will always go up and down as do almost all investments. With economy doing well there will always be buyers. More industry moving to Toronto (Uber, Google, maybe Amazon) Demand will always be there. Sometimes more, sometime less but in the long run prices will go up.
Real estate is one of the easiest investments to make money.
I have a condo in Mississauga which I rent out, and my tenants have basically paid off my mortgage for me…only 30K left on the mortgage. Now I am getting $2500 a month. The condo has doubled in price over 8 years. Not a bad investment at all.
As long as there are tenants I will always have someone to pay my mortgage….Quite frankly lots of tenants paying rent through their noses:)
Two more months like this, and we get a full breakdown of the real estate cycle. If you were considering selling your home, you should probably do it now.
A TREB survey had 40% of respondents saying they plan on selling this year. Now agents are advising them to wait until next year. Nothing like a nice, fat inventory block to kill the market.
Have a link? I wish this kind of stuff was available for Vancouver.
Just doing some quick math, you can see how there’s zero chance this is going to work out for people. You drop a $182,980 down payment, and since interest rates are rising, let’s assume you pay an average of 6% over the 25 year period (it’s likely to be higher tbh), you’ll pay $682,625 in just interest.
You’re looking for a 50% increase just to break even over that period, before taxes, maintenance and insurance. For context, if you bought during the 1990 peak, prices hit the 1990 peak in 2005. If this is peak, there’s a possibility that your house will be the same price in 25 years, and you paid $682,625 to live in it (not unlike rent).
Benchmark is a joke! It’s not reliable and is great at distorting reality.
TREB will no longer be able to speak of YOY gains when it comes to Average/Median in the Toronto Detached segment. Its going to be month after month of negative YOY starting in SEP.
There is nothing that can pump this market back up! People need to accept it, cycles end when reality bites back.
I guess TREB/Banks/Builders/Realtors need to accept it. But they wont, they will keep pumping their lies (happily distributed by MSM) hoping to get suckers to buy into the dream of unlimited growth.
Best explanation ever lol
in Toronto, average detached home prices dropped a whopping $106k in August from the previous month – that’s really the only number you need to know.
The rest, including the “benchmark price” is just fluff invented with the sole purpose of making terrible data look fantastic and find some new suckers to prop up the RE industry! 😉
What’s being passed off as acceptable math in Canada right now:
$100 – $30 = $98.5*
*MLS HPI Benchmark
100 – 35 = 110**
** seasonally adjusted
I guess that’s what happens when Realtors do math. Can we at least get them to show their work and give them partial marks?
Prices will always go up and down as do almost all investments. With economy doing well there will always be buyers. More industry moving to Toronto (Uber, Google, maybe Amazon) Demand will always be there. Sometimes more, sometime less but in the long run prices will go up.
Real estate is one of the easiest investments to make money.
I have a condo in Mississauga which I rent out, and my tenants have basically paid off my mortgage for me…only 30K left on the mortgage. Now I am getting $2500 a month. The condo has doubled in price over 8 years. Not a bad investment at all.
As long as there are tenants I will always have someone to pay my mortgage….Quite frankly lots of tenants paying rent through their noses:)
To all the renters thanks for paying my mortgage. Property almost paid off, doubled I’m value in 8 years. Renters keep paying through the nose.. thank you!
Data shows that the housing price became double in April 2017 compared to January 2014. And only in around 4 months from December 2016 to April 2017 Average price increased $300,000. This much price increase is not only unusual. This is like Mafia business. How about average income of citizen, did it increased any significant amount???? How the excess amount of money coming for living?? What is the reason behind this price hike?? The present real estate price is not only out of affordability, it’s impossible to afford in real sense. Vancouver price dropped 36% compared to the peak price according to the recent report. It’s the time to be corrected the price at least for a little better living here in Toronto. So, Government/authority must have to look on this sector; just not let it go. You (Gov) should take step to get the price down and never let it go unusual way to protect your citizen. Government should take measure to prevent price hike by implementing new and effective laws. Because, the present mortgage repayment became almost double compared to December 2016, that’s killing our affordable and comfortable living.