July 4, 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.