Toronto detached real estate is doing better than last year, but that doesn’t say a whole lot. Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) numbers show sales made a huge jump in April, when compared to last year. Even with the climb, it was still the second fewest sales for April in a decade – with a multi-year high for inventory.
Toronto Detached Prices Improve, But Still Down Over 10%
The board’s benchmark price for detached homes jumped on a monthly basis. TREB reported a benchmark price of $934,500 in April, up 1.04% from last year. The City of Toronto benchmark reached $1,131,700, up 1.98% from the year before. Even with a large monthly gain, the annual increase was only slightly higher than last year.
Toronto Detached Benchmark Price
The price of a typical detached home across the Toronto Real Estate Board, in Canadian dollars.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
The annual pace of growth improved for both regions. TREB’s annual pace of growth hasn’t been this high since December 2017. The City of Toronto last saw detached homes increase at this pace in November 2018. Prices across TREB remain 10.95% lower than the peak reached in May 2017. As for the City of Toronto, detached prices remain 7.87% lower than the peak reached in May 2017.
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 remained lower than the benchmark, with even weaker gains. TREB’s median sale price hit $870,000 in April, the exact same number it was one year ago – to the dollar. The City of Toronto saw detached homes fetch a median sale price of $1,050,000, down 2.77% from last year. More than half of all detached homes in TREB sold 6.9% lower than the “typical” benchmark. In the City, more than half of all detached homes sold 7.21% below the benchmark.
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 sale price of detached real estate is also showing weak growth. TREB reported an average sale price of $1,018,147 in April, down 1.16% from last year. The City of Toronto average reached $1,355,764, virtually flat from last year. The average isn’t adjusted for size, but is a good proxy for changes in dollar volume.
Toronto Detached Average Sale Price Change
The 12 month percent change of average sale price across across TREB.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Second Fewest Detached Sales Since The Great Recession
Greater Toronto detached sales made a huge rise from last year, but it’s not as good as it sounds. TREB reported 4,173 detached sales in April, up 20.92% from the same month last year. The City of Toronto represented 982 of those sales, up 19.2% from last year. It seems impressive until you realize it was the second fewest sales for April since 2009. Yes, last year was the lowest.
Toronto Detached April Sales
The total number of Greater Toronto detached sales made in the month of April.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Detached Inventory Hits Highest Level In Over 8 Years
New listings of detached homes across Greater Toronto experienced a modest bump. TREB reported 9,360 new listings in April, up 9.11% from last year. The City of Toronto represented 2,050 new listings, up 13.19% from last year. The rise in both numbers helped to push the total level of inventory higher.
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.
The total number of detached homes for sale reached a multi-year high. TREB reported 11,051 active listings in April, up 0.86% compared to the same month last year. The City of Toronto represented 2,126 of the active listings, up 11.36% from last year. The total level of detached inventory was at an 8 year high for April.
Toronto Active Detached Listings
The total number of detached listings available.
Source: TREB, Better Dwelling.
Greater Toronto detached real estate still hasn’t found a groove for sales and inventory. Sales improved, but they were still some of the weakest we’ve seen in a decade. Inventory is at a high for the month of April, helping to improve demand balance. Buyers aren’t quite sure what to make from this either, as prices remain flat-ish from last year.
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It’s actually kind of funny to start seeing 3 bedroom condos surpassing a detached home prices in the downtown core. Actually, you can start to see one bedroom plus dens in some buildings, fetching as much as a detached downtown.
To clarify, I think detached homes might be just a little overpriced here, which won’t matter in a few years. It’s really hard to see the appeal of a lot of these slap-dash condos going up though.
There is no market in the world where condo values eclipse SFH. Before you shout ‘Hong Kong’ you should do some research. Sure, manhattan could be a candidate but then you’d be comparing New York to Toronto and that would be very silly. Funny? Not really, these sort of crosses have preceded corrections. Tock. BD4L.
The increasing sales/ price stabilization of detached could actually end up being what finally breaks the condo segment. Not a bad move right now to cash in your condo equity to make the move up. Especially if you believe that the price gap is going to start expanding again. Problem is if too many people try this at the same time. Increasing resale inventory plus the record new construction on its way could be what finally breaks the market floor.
Once condo owners lose some of their new found equity that kills the move up segment.
Agreed, now is a fantastic time to move up from a Condo.
What’s the old saying? Sell your best performer?
Weren’t rising interest rates/stress test/high inventory/lower demand/forces of nature/BD/everything else supposed to break the market floor??
Tick Tock. BD4L
Aaron, a piece of what you said bothers me the most with all this condo hype; the quality is really bad! I’ve visited enough friends who rent. The monthly condos fees down the road will be enormous. ESPECIALLY when the condo fees were kept artificially low in the first few years to attract buyers.
If prices are moving at 190 bps, it seems prudent to consider the cost of your existing housing as insurance. Detached prices are rising below CPI. Every year you get one of those, your house becomes cheaper and your fixed income instruments look better.
Hi Liu, I feel like I’m in Goodwill hunting and some ponytail yuppie just chimed in with a bunch of nonsense to look smart and impress the ladies. I don’t believe you accomplished either even though I have a little tingle in my nether regions, you scamp. So we should just buy houses because the consumer pricing index is appreciating at a higher rate? Therefore the plebes got the cizash so we just need to re-up on houses and it’s all gravy. Genius. I’m suprised uncle tony didn’t think of that. Tock. BD4L.
yesterday CBC online had a big column on the ever expanding precarious work environment. Young people in central T.O. are working 2 jobs, not enough pay, etc, …yet, some entity is coming in and snapping up these condo’s like mad at crazy prices. They don’t seem to be interested in detached at all, potentially due to the work of up-keep-maintenance like lawn cutting, roof, weeds, etc…I wonder who would want a condo over a house though, (that has actual real property, land, so to speak).
What kind of entity would be interested in only Condo’s????
Chinese oligarchs and money launderers.
Why would I care if my safety deposit box is tiny and cant support a family?
I was walking up yonge in an asian hood the other day at night, 50% old buildings no lights 70% units new buildings no lights.
Condos are like stocks to these people and when the bag holders realize whats happening and the social consequences they will not be happy. Not like some oligarch in beijing gives a shit, they dont have to deal with the social consequences, and their country is already a dump. Checkout the air quality (aqi)index of beijing/shanghai to see what I mean.
Im surprised every chinese with a few bux hasnt left already, with potential currency deval and outright government kidnapping/theft (even billionaires aint safe) completely acceptable.
Uncle Wu or cuz Li .
Accept it. There are over 1.3b of them. All way harder working than the fools on this website who just expect houses to be handed to them via government policy. Wu and Li will continue to support and rent to the fools here who will never get on the property ladder.
DB
these people you speak of… do they bring suitcase loads of cash coming from Unknown Origin????
Just wondering…
Only small timers do that.
The real chinese oligarchs use
1. import/export companies and over invoice to launder /exit china
2. Take a fake usd loan with yuan collateral and just never pay it. Need to pay 30% to crooked banker tho.
3. Similar to 2. only use fake loan to start franchise in canada, make it lose money. Rinse and repeat with new bus every 6 months-2 years.