Higher interest rates and stricter mortgage rules conspired to send home sales in Toronto down 16.1% in 2018 from the previous year, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).
The number of homes sold in Toronto and the surrounding area dropped last year along with the number of new listings as people grappled with the reality of higher interest rates and stricter mortgage rules.
TREB said in a news release that there were 77,426 residential transactions recorded through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in 2018, down 16.1% from 92,263 sales in 2017. The board added that the total number of new home listings was also lower, pulling back 12.7% to 155,823 in 2018. Meanwhile, the average sales price for all property types in the Greater Toronto Area fell by 4.3% to $787,300.
TREB, which represents more than 52,000 real estate agents across Greater Toronto, said the number of home sales in December 2018 fell 22.5% to 3,781, down from 4,876 in the same month of 2017.
If there was a bright spot in the Toronto home sales data, it is that the average sales price in December rose by 2.1% to $750,180 from $734,847 in December 2017.
