« Toronto real estate 'experts' speak: | Main | Overpriced and Overbuilt »
Toronto Real Estate Board reports:
March resale housing results show year-over-year sales down 7% and median price down 2.5%.
In March 2009, Greater Toronto Realtors reported 6,171 sales – down seven per cent from March 2008, representing the smallest year-over-year decline in the last five months. The average price for March transactions was $362,052 – down less than five per cent from the same month last year.
“The Greater Toronto housing market has stood up very well given the challenging economic times the world has experienced in recent months,” commented TREB President Maureen O’Neill. “In fact, over the past two months, the situation in the housing market has improved.”
“Sales in March increased at a rate over and above what would be expected from the normal spring-time bump,” said Jason Mercer TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis. “A greater number of households have taken advantage of increased affordability in the housing marketplace.”
The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of sales increased to 65,600 in March – up 36 per cent from the ten-year low reached in January. Seasonally adjusting TREB MLS data removes recurring seasonal trends observed each year. For example, MLS sales are highest in late spring each year and lowest in the winter months. Removing the recurring seasonality, allows for the analysis of a meaningful trend reflecting actual changes in market conditions. By multiplying the monthly seasonally-adjusted figure by 12, creating an annual rate, we can compare how the current month relates to historical annual figures.
Median Price
The median price in March was $317,500 from the $326,000 recorded in March of 2008.
See the complete Toronto Market Watch report »
April 6, 2009 in Toronto Real Estate Update | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c51e453ef01156efa0427970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Toronto Real Estate Board reports::
Comments
Yes, they are now comparing current sales levels to 2008 - but if they compared to 2007 (ie. two years ago), sales would be down 28%, instead of the 7% versus last year.
This is still an example of how the TREB always communicates stats to their own best advantage. I will at least concede that they are back to the norm of comparing against the last year (albeit to their own advantage).
Let's give credit where credit is due... and it's hard-pressed to say this is one of those cases.
Posted by: toronto renter | Apr 8, 2009 12:04:06 AM
Thoughtful commentators, some of them real estate agents, have noted that March 2008 sales were relatively low because the new Toronto tax came into effect. There was a rush to buy in the months preceding, and a drop after. My statement that "March sales haven't been this low since 2000 and 2001" is a fairly straightforward fact.
Posted by: CinToronto | Apr 7, 2009 10:01:39 AM
I read a lot of the comments here and they tend to pounce on identifying the 'bias' of the TREB board here but the poster fails to acknowledge their own bias in their belief that the TREB has their own agenda. For instance, some postings here (rightly) called the TREB for comparing current data to two years ago but here they compare it to last year and it's still not good enough. I'm not saying that the TREB doesn't have bias in their reporting but there's also a lot of bias in the comments here too that goes unchecked. The data is the data, the conclusions are up to us but it's not wrong to say that there isn't as big a difference in YOY in March as there was in Feb. Now one month does not a trend make so we'll see. And to prevent any name calling I am NOT (a) a realtor (b) a seller (c) a buyer (d) angry (e) underwater (f) jealous (g) employed by TREB or any other real estate board (h) unemployed
Posted by: Geoff | Apr 7, 2009 9:26:54 AM
The March sales figures from 2000 to 2009 should help to put things into perspective. However TREB wants to spin it, March sales haven't been this low since 2000-2001.
Year Sales
2009 6171
2008 6631
2007 8518
2006 8707
2005 7904
2004 9076
2003 6986
2002 7602
2001 6328
2000 6133
Posted by: CinToronto | Apr 6, 2009 5:08:05 PM
