In April, buyers benefited from considerably more choice in housing stock! New listings in the GTA were up 33.6 per cent compared with the same month last year. Whether this surge can be attributed to Seller’s reacting to a year of unprecedented sale prices, or to the new Ontario Fair Housing Plan and it’s real estate measures, is not yet clear. Only time will tell if this is an upward trend or an anomaly. Meanwhile, real estate sales declined from March to April.
Here are the Toronto Real Estate Board Stats for April 2017:
May 3, 2017 — Toronto Real Estate Board President Larry Cerqua announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® entered 33.6 per cent more new listings into TREB’s MLS® System in April 2017, at 21,630, compared to the same month in 2016. New listings were up by double-digits for all low-rise home types, including detached and semi-detached houses and townhouses. New listings for condominium apartments were at the same level as last year.
Total sales for the TREB market area as a whole amounted to 11,630 – down 3.2 per cent year-over-year. One issue underlying this decline was the fact that Easter fell in April in 2017 versus March in 2016, which resulted in fewer working days this year compared to last and, historically, most sales are entered into TREB’s MLS® System on working days.
“The fact that we experienced extremely strong growth in new listings in April means that buyers benefitted from considerably more choice in the marketplace. It is too early to tell whether the increase in new listings was simply due to households reacting to the strong double-digit price growth reported over the past year or if some of the increase was also a reaction to the Ontario government’s recently announced Fair Housing Plan,” said Mr. Cerqua. The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark Price was up by 31.7 per cent yearover- year in April 2017. Similarly, the average selling price for all home types combined was up by 24.5 per cent to $920,791.
“It was encouraging to see a very strong year-over-year increase in new listings. If new listings growth continues to outpace sales growth moving forward, we will start to see more balanced market conditions. It will likely take a number of months to unwind the substantial pent-up demand that has built over the past two years. Expect annual rates of price growth to remain well-above the rate of inflation as we move through the spring and summer months,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.
This Canadian Real Estate Wealth article has some interesting insight concerning the implications of April’s sales statistics, as well as foreign buyers and real estate speculating. If you’re curious to see the price and transaction breakdowns by housing type and geographical area, here’s the complete set of April 2017 stats from TREB!
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