It’s that time of the month again – Toronto Real Estate Market performance stats time!
Here’s the scope, if you come across a news headline that reads GTA real estate market is down 40% for last March, know it’s not reflecting sales price.
The 40% is the number of sales listings! Last month, TREB reported 7,228 homes sold across the GTA. In March 2017, TREB reported 11,954 homes sold across the GTA – this is the 40% decline.
Since most of my clients aren’t calling me to ask how many properties sold across the entire GTA last month, let’s talk about the average selling price.
We are down 14.2% when comparing average selling price from March 2017 vs March 2018. Last March, the average selling price in the GTA was $915,126 and this March the average has dropped to $784,558.
Why are we seeing this price drop? This is a result of the Fair Housing Plan, the new mortgage stress test and higher borrowing costs. Buyers have been holding off on making purchase decisions too quickly. However, as these rules become the new standard and “news from the past” home sales are expected to get back to 2017 prices in the second half of this year.
Because of the above, comparing any real estate stats from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018 are going to seem drastic. Last year, we had less than a month of property inventory versus this year with property inventory levels between two and three months.
And again – these are numbers from all of the areas in the Toronto Real Estate Board. Central Toronto numbers both in the condo and housing sector tell a much different story. If you like to know how your neighbourhood is doing – drop me a line. I would be happy to share that with you.
The spring market is here! Buyers and Sellers are motivated to make moves. As we move into the summer months expect headlines to change from their current “negative” focus.