TORONTO, July 7, 2014 –
Stepping into
his role as President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, Paul Etherington
announced a strong increase in residential sales reported through the
TorontoMLS system in June. Sales were up by 15.4 per cent year-over-year to
10,180 transactions. New listings were also up compared to the same period in
2013, but by a lesser annual rate. This means that competition between buyers
increased in June.
“Home buyers in the Greater Toronto Area are confident in their ability to purchase and affordably pay for a home. Generally speaking, buyers feel that ownership housing will be a good investment over the long term. This is why we continued to see increases in home sales in June for all major home types across the GTA. Given the degree of pent-up demand in the market today, I would expect to see sales growth continue through the summer,” said Mr. Etherington.
The average selling price for June transactions was $568,953, representing an increase of 7.4 per cent compared to June 2013. The strongest price increase for the GTA as a whole was for semi-detached houses, with the average price up by 9.7 per cent year-over-year. The pace of price growth for condominium apartments was also strong at 6.8 per cent.
“With less than two months of inventory in many parts of the GTA, it makes sense that we continued to experience very strong price growth in June. This is especially the case for low-rise home types like singles, semis and townhouses.
Strong price growth for these home types will continue through the remainder of 2014. Despite higher inventory levels, the condominium apartment market segment has benefitted from enough buyer interest to result in above-inflation price growth,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.
Housing Market Indicators
|
|||
June '13
|
June '14
|
% change
|
|
Sales
|
8,821
|
10,180
|
15.4
|
New Listings
|
15,458
|
16,735
|
8.3
|
Active Listings
|
22,205
|
20,686
|
-6.8
|
Days on the Market
|
24
|
22
|
-8.3
|
PRICE
|
$529,614
|
$568,953
|
7.4
|
My Opinion
These numbers illustrate clearly that
Demand is still stronger than Supply in the housing market, and that home
prices continue to increase because of this. Demand will always be higher as
long as borrowing costs (interest rates) stay low. Economists are anticipating
an increase in interest rates to be implemented sometime in 2015. They’ve been
saying this since 2011…we’ll see what happens.Increasing interest rates is easier to say than to do, because many things will be affected…I talk more about this in my video (above). Have a watch!
