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Toronto Real Estate Board:
GTA Resale Housing Sales Up 19% in the First Half of June
Greater Toronto Realtors reported 5,185 transactions in the first half of June - an increase of 19 per cent compared to the same period last year. "Households in the GTA have become more confident in purchasing a home over the past three months," said TREB President Maureen O'Neill. "Affordability, due in part to very low borrowing costs, has played a key role."
The average price for MLS® sales was $407,716, up by two per cent compared to last year. "Heightened interest in ownership housing this spring has solidified resale home prices," according to Jason Mercer, TREB's Senior Manager of Market Analysis. "The number of home buyers has been high relative to the number of listings, pushing the average price above last year's level."
See the Toronto Real Estate Board's Market Watch Report »
Source: The Toronto Real Estate Board
June 17, 2009 in Toronto Real Estate Update | Permalink
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Comments
Good to hear this news, I am interesting to investing money in real estate
Posted by: Sell Your House | Jun 27, 2009 4:09:32 AM
ok, but Tony my point was simply that everything I've seen and read suggests that slowest moving segment of the market IS the higher priced homes (above $700K). So if they aren't moving, how come the average price YOY is up? OR are they moving and the real estate bears are overstating the case?
Posted by: Geoff | Jun 25, 2009 10:21:01 AM
Investor has this correct. When higher priced homes start moving, this pulls the "average" price up. It doesn't mean that prices for most homes are going up.
We won't really know anything until August. The spring buyers will be done by then and mortgage rates will have risen.
Posted by: Tony | Jun 22, 2009 2:30:40 PM
This has everything to do with historic low mortgage rates.
Up until a week ago, you could get 5 year rates at 3.5-3.6% and 3 year rates at 2.9-3 %
Rates have already gone up almost 1% since then.
We probably will never see fixed rates this low again for decades. This has prompted a lot of people I know to buy now. That plus not having to deal with the HST this year.
I fully expect to see prices and sales drop significantly later this year and next.
However, you still may come out on top (for the next five years at least) if you bought this spring with these mortgage rates as even if prices drop 5-10% in the next year you may have saved more in the next 5 years in lower interest.
Posted by: Onin | Jun 19, 2009 1:52:26 PM
Isn't 5 years along time? Wasn't Summer 2009 supposed to be the big meltdown in prices, now it's Summer 2014?
At some point Y3K is going to be a big problem, perhaps? ;)
Posted by: Geoff | Jun 19, 2009 9:05:16 AM
Remember the issue in the US with 'teaser rates'? Guess where those 3% variable, 95%-financed purchases are going in a year or two? Even those buying on 5-year closed rates are going to wake up screaming when they realized they bought into a trap this Spring, and their GTA property has gone down another 20% in value, while rates head to 11%. This is a perfect storm, and agents are fuelling it but can't be blamed - stupidity of the purchaser is always the root cause. Let's hope by 2011 David Miller is history (along with his foolish tax), and none of the Eunuchs at Queen's Park or in Ottawa decide that bailing out today's Dead Man Walking purchaser is good politics.
Posted by: Bill Dimma | Jun 18, 2009 9:43:17 PM
I guess I got ahead of myself with the July statement. I am just saying anything above 400K+. Yes, but prices have risen compared to January, February and March of this year.
Posted by: Investor | Jun 18, 2009 12:13:01 PM
Ok, I get what you're saying but everything I've read says that the higher end properties are the ones that aren't moving, and in previous years they were; this makes it difficult to cite this as the reason for prices being flat with last year.
Posted by: Geoff | Jun 18, 2009 10:14:19 AM
Well sales were terrible for the first 3 months, so it looks like a lot of people waited until June and July to buy, usually when prices peak. Clearly it shows that the market is struggling as the price increases are pretty much remaining flat, since Realtors in Canada use average price the price can be skewed to the upside very easy when more properties in the higher range sell. It looks like people are buying the higher range properties to avoid the hassle with the new tax.
Currently, new homes are exempt from PST. Under the HST, new homes worth less than $400,000 will qualify for a 6% tax rebate, but new homes worth more than $500,000 will be subject to an additional 8% tax.
Posted by: Investor | Jun 18, 2009 9:26:07 AM
Thoughts on this, anyone? Can't believe it's a deadcat bounce still... or is it?
Posted by: Geoff | Jun 17, 2009 4:00:45 PM
