Toronto Home Sales Slump 10% in mid-May, but Prices Continue to Climb

Toronto Star

Business / Real Estate

Toronto home sales slump 10 per cent in mid-May, but prices continue to climb

Excerpted from the Toronto Star

Toronto condo prices climb 2.1 per cent in mid-May, even in face of more listings and slower sales

Darren Calabrese / THE CANADIAN PRESS

GTA home sales were down almost 10 per cent in mid-May from a year earlier, but prices continued to climb.

 

By:Susan PiggBusiness Reporter, Published on Thu May 16 2013

 

House sales were down almost 10 per cent in the first half of May, but prices climbed by one of their highest levels in months — a 5.4 per cent gain driven largely by sales of detached homes.

But even condos more than held their own. While sales were down 13 per cent across the GTA, and the inventory of units for sale remains above historic norms, prices were up 1.1 per cent overall across the GTA — 2.1 per cent in the city.
 

Sales of all housing types took the biggest tumble in the City of Toronto where they slumped by 11.4 per cent year over year, fuelled largely by a 21.3 per cent drop in townhouse sales and a 13.6 per cent in condo sales, according to mid-May sales and price figures released Thursday by the Toronto Real Estate Board.

The 905 regions saw an 8.6 per cent decline in sales over mid-May of last year, thanks largely to an 11.6 per cent slump in condo sales and 9.6 per cent decline in the sale of townhomes.

But despite the lower sales numbers, the average transaction price during the first two weeks of May was $543,838, a 5.4 per cent increase over the same period last year and one of the biggest price gains seen in the last few months.
 

A 2.1 per cent increase in resale condo prices in the City of Toronto saw the average condo sale hit $377,341 in mid-May, according to the TREB figures. In the 905, prices dropped by 1.4 per cent, bringing the average unit sale price to $285,851.
 

The sale of detached homes declined by 7.5 per cent across the GTA, with a drop of 6.7 per cent recorded in the City of Toronto and 7.8 per cent in the 905 regions.
 

Average sale prices jumped 5.6 per cent for detached homes across the GTA, with the biggest price hikes in the 905 regions (up 7.5 per cent to an average price of $615,563) followed by more modest increases in the 416 region (up two per cent to $855,334) where the inventory of homes for sale remains tight.
 

Semi-detached house sales were down 7 per cent across the GTA, with the decline slightly bigger in the 905 regions than the 416. But prices were up 5.5 per cent in the city, to an average $630,984, and 3.2 per cent in the 905 regions to $414,835.
 

New listings were up three per cent, year over year, said Jason Mercer, senior analyst for TREB, who pointed to Toronto’s land transfer tax, and relatively higher house prices, for the fact sales have been slumping more in the city than the suburbs the last few months.

Six in 10 GTA Homeowners Plan to Buy Again Within Five Years

Toronto Star

Business / Real Estate

Excerpted from the Toronto Star

Real Estate: Six in 10 GTA homeowners plan to buy again within five years

Sales are falling and prices are rising, but most GTA homeowners says they will buy again in the near future

By:Morgan CampbellBusiness, Published on Wed May 22 2013

 

Real estate prices continue to rise, but a new Bank of Montreal poll says that hasn’t damaged GTA homeowners’ belief in the market.
 

According to research released Wednesday morning, 57 per cent of local homeowners polled plan to buy a new home within the next five years. That figure was down two per cent from last September, but 11 per cent ahead of the national average.
 

While the number varied widely in other cities compared with last autumn’s poll, BMO analyst Sal Guatieri says GTA homeowners’ intentions to buy in the future will hold steady for the rest of this year.
 

“Maybe people are sensing more stability,” says Guatieri, a senior economist with BMO Capital Markets. “I would not expect people to become more optimistic and jump into the market, but I don’t see a further fall back in sales, either In Vancouver and Calgary homeowners’ confidence in the future of the housing market was much more volatile.
 

When surveyed last fall, 53 per cent of Vancouver homeowners polled planned to buy a new home within five years, while 52 per cent of respondents in Calgary expressed the same intention. But by May, the percentage of Vancouver residents with new home plans had jumped to 58, while in Calgary that number slumped to 39 percent.
 

“That left us scratching our heads,” Guatieri says. “We expected the opposite because Calgary is supposed to be close to fair value. Affordability is quite good there.”
 

One possible explanation, Guatieri says, is that even though Vancouver remains an expensive place to buy a home, real estate prices there have begun falling, which in turn could prompt prospective home buyers to feel confident about finding a better deal in the future.
 

The survey, conducted for BMO by Pollara, also found that 46 per cent of homeowners under 40 planned to buy a new home within five years.
 

Compared to last September, respondents were also less sensitive to changes in price. The percentage of Ontario residents who said they would buy a new home remained steady, even when pollsters introduced a hypothetical five per cent price increase.
 

Nationwide, four per cent fewer residents said they would buy a home if prices rose five per cent. Last fall the hypothetical price hike slashed the intention to buy a home by 10 per cent.