By: Zoocasa
Toronto housing market sales continue the way they’ve been going the entire first quarter of 2017 down. This May, sales have fallen by double digits for all market types in the 416, says the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).
One reason TREB gives for slow sales is that buyers are unable to find a home that meets their needs: “In a recent Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis study undertaken for the Toronto Real Estate Board, it was found that many people are over-housed in Ontario, with over five million extra bedrooms. These people don’t list their homes for sale, because they feel there are no alternative housing types for them to move into. Policy makers need to focus more on the ‘missing middle’ - home types that bridge the gap between detached houses and condominium apartments,” says Tim Syrianos, president of TREB.
Detached houses have fared the worst, unsurprisingly, and have plunged 30.4 per cent from last year. As the most expensive market type, it makes sense its sales have declined the most. Few people can afford the $1,426,100 it costs on average to buy a house in the 416, and even fewer can afford homes over $2 million, which is at least how much it takes to buy a renovated, large family home in Toronto, and is also the average price for a home in central Toronto. Any decline in higher-priced detached homes also hits the weighted average for the whole GTA hard.
Semi-detached houses have fared almost as bad as detached, with sales plunging 30.1 per cent, and only 242 homes selling this May. This home type also averages just over $1 million in Toronto, and $1,455,00 in central Toronto.
Townhouse sales declined less, at 17.2 per cent.
Condos for sale in Toronto remained the star of the Toronto housing market, not only declining in sales the least, but also being the only property type to show price growth. Sales declined 13.8 per cent, selling 1745 units in May, while prices grew 6.5 per cent to almost $603,000.
And when they do sell, Toronto real estate listings are also taking much longer to do so.
The average time a property remains on market is now 20 days, almost double what it was last May at 11 days.
Check out the infographic for more details:
Zoocasa.com is a leading real estate company that combines online search tools and a full-service brokerage to empower Canadians to buy or sell their homes faster, easier and more successfully. Home buyers can browse real estate listings on the website or the free iOS app.
