Toronto real estate is seeing the suburbs recover, while the city is showing signs of moderation. Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) numbers show August was a mixed month. Generally speaking, the 905 saw demand move higher, while the City of Toronto saw demand taper.
Toronto Real Estate Is Cheaper Than Last Month
The price of a typical home moved a touch lower from last month, but is still higher than last year. The composite benchmark across TREB reached $764,800 in August, down $3,600 from the month before. The City of Toronto saw the benchmark hit $838,200, down $700 from the month before. The benchmark is seasonally adjusted, so seasonal impact has been minimized.
Greater Toronto Benchmark Price
The price of a “typical” composite home across Greater Toronto.
Source: TREB. Better Dwelling.
Despite the monthly drop, prices are still higher this year than last year. TREB’s prices are 1.45% higher than last year, an improvement from last month’s annual benchmark change of -0.59%. The City of Toronto’s annual price movement works out 6.07% higher than last year. That’s also an improvement from the 3.85% annual gain we saw last month. The minor increase across TREB will most likely be negative once CPI adjusted.
Greater Toronto Benchmark Price Change
The annual percent change of TREB’s benchmark price for all home types.
Source: TREB. Better Dwelling.
Toronto Real Estate’s Median Selling Price Is Up Over 4%
The median sale price improved across all of Greater Toronto. TREB reported a median sale price of $659,900 in August, up 4.79% from last year. The City of Toronto’s median sale price came in at $637,500, up 9.16%. Standard warning – the median isn’t adjusted for quality, neighborhood, or square footage. Unfortunately, that means it won’t tell you how much you’ll pay for a home. Instead, it’s a sign of dollar flow, which moved higher.
The average sale price also saw big improvements across Greater Toronto. TREB reported an average sale price of $765,270 in August, up 4.50% from last year. The City of Toronto average hit $785,223, up 8.05% compared to last year. In the city, most of the gains were driven by increases in condo prices. Much like the median, this is best used as a dollar flow indicator.
Greater Toronto Average Sale Price Change
The annual percent change of the average sale price of all homes.
Source: TREB. Better Dwelling.
Sales Improved In The Suburbs, Fall In The City
Greater Toronto sales improved in the burbs, but declined in the city. TREB reported 6,839 sales in August, up a whopping 7.85% from last year. The City of Toronto represented 2,441 of those sales, down 1.57% from last year. Falling sales are sometimes due to demand, and sometimes to inventory. Let’s take a peak at inventory.
Greater Toronto Sales To New Listings
The number newly listed units per month, in contrast to sales.
Source: TREB. Better Dwelling.
Real Estate Inventory Increases Across Greater Toronto
The number of new listings increased across Greater Toronto. TREB reported 12,166 new listings in August, up 5.58% compared to last year. The City of Toronto represented 3,752 new listings, up 4.13% from last year. The increase in new listings helped to improve overall inventory levels.
Active listings, the total inventory for sale, improved across Greater Toronto. TREB reported 17,864 active listings in August, up 8.8% compared to last year. The City of Toronto represented 4,808 of those listings, up 1.37% from last year. Despite an increase in sales, inventory is still climbing higher.
Greater Toronto Active Listings
The number of listings available for sale in May 2018, across Greater Toronto.
Source: TREB. Better Dwelling.
Demand picked up in the suburbs, while the City of Toronto saw some signs of moderation. The numbers are still a little wonky this month, when compared to last year. Last May, Ontario was hit with new policy measures. These typically takes markets six to twelve months to adjust. Consequently comparing year over year to these months is a little limited in use. Towards the end of the year, and into next spring – we’ll see where the market is heading. Until then, enjoy the guessing game.
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Waiting for the turds at BNN to tell us why lower prices and sales in the city are a good thing, and we should buy every mortgage company’s stock. 😂
Globe and Mail selling the narrative. Looks like they were spoon fed numbers.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/article-toronto-housing-sputters-back-to-life-as-prices-sales-grow-in-august/
Aren’t prices up YoY?
Sorta. Everything gets inflation adjusted next year, which will end up printing a negative on TREBs data. Today it’s positive, next year when it’s that low, it won’t be. Still a decent gain when balanced over the huge run, but I think people should know to expect they’ll have to give some of that back.
Inventory is rising in the resale, but let’s not discount how much inventory there is in total now when you consider how many pre-sales are languishing with developers as well.
Malarky. There’s still people lining up for condo pre-sales. I was in one just the other day. Plenty of demand for new condos.
You must be new here, because there was an article last week with new condo inventory sales that showed sales are dropping fast and inventory is building. Toronto real estate is now pricy, but no where near under inventoried.
https://betterdwelling.com/city/toronto/toronto-sees-new-condo-sales-fall-over-52-inventory-spikes-over-63/
For new condos that are in good locations, and priced accordingly, there is still a lot of demand for them, for ex. Sugar Wharf. The issue is, some developers are over pricing their units and people are now more cautious when developers are over pushing for new heights. Secondly, beg. Q4 is usually where the activity is and many developers have their flagship projects set to launch.
Demand is nothing like last year (everything blew out), but on average year to year, would say condos are still doing exceptionally well.
That is not true. Some project may be OK but here is the GTA picture:
July 2018 new construction sales as per Altus Group:
Low Rise: 216 sales; down -77% from 10 year average
High Rise: 855 sales; down -40% from 10 year average
Total New Homes: 1,071 sales; down -55% from 10 year average
@Mac. …. MG wrote “I was in one” and you replied, “You must be new here, because there was an article” ? Seriously.. the guy just told you first-hand experience and you are saying his new because there was an article? 🤦🏻♂️ Spike in inventory doesn’t mean that some product priced well is not selling. Now when market cached up with reality, all those shoebox poorly built condos will be stuck until they are discounted to realistic value of the shoebox. Every other product in good location / good quality will still attract pre-sales. Buyers are just picky because guess what — its a buyers market now.
Wow, unbelievable how positive the headlines are for such abysmal data!
* Average detached price down in Toronto $106k in a single month – the largest monthly drop since August of last year when average detached prices dropped $113k in a single month!!!
* Cumulative average price drop for detached homes in the 416 area is $182K or almost 13% since May 2018!!!
* Average detached prices in the 905 area are even lower than they were in April 2016 once adjusted for inflation (i.e. on average everyone who has bought a detached homoe in the 905 since March 2016 has lost money).
* Average condo prices in the 905 area dropped a whopping $20K or 4.3% in a single month, meaning on average people who bought a condo in the 905 area since February 2017 have lost money.
* Total new listings in the GTA were 500+ higher than last August and Active listings were 1,400+ higher, while sales were up less than 500 units which puts us at 4.3 months of inventory, the same levels we had in May 2017 while the crash was underway.
In short, I don’t see anything positive in the data at all. no stabilization as so many articles mentioned and certainly not a rebound of any kind.
Once again, TStar, G&M, TSun, National Post, CBC and others print pretty much anything that the real estate PR department spoon feeds them! Zero analysis or investigative reporting from these so-called “journalists”!
It’s then the turn of bank analysts, mortgage industry, developers and Remax types to spin the same garbage.
Watch your back (and debt levels), these people are vultures!
The Star is posting that Toronto is gaining this month both in sales and price. Still pushing the lack of supply narrative with TREBs President stating that – “We only have slightly more than two-and-a-half months of inventory in the TREB market as a whole and less than two months of inventory in the City of Toronto…This could present a problem if demand continues to accelerate over the next year, which is expected” *eyeroll*
https://www.thestar.com/business/2018/09/06/home-prices-rise-against-tighter-supply-in-august.html
Tick tock. BD4L.
tick tock we won’t stop…..
stop going up
The only way housing will lower is a huge spike in interest rate. When ppl can’t afford to pay their mortgage and get laid off at work, cause everything else when up. Then you will see who the real speculators are. Canada will raise interest rates along side the US to be competitive in currency. Then main reason is, if you lower the currency, there will be less foreigner interest buying our dollar and move to the US currency. Lets go back to 1980 where it was 18% interest rate!
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 per uint. This much price increase is very unusual for anything. How about average income of citizen, did it increased any significant amount or any amount in that period???? 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 make correction of 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. Authority 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.