Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada’s largest housing market, fell 44.6% in January from a year earlier, while sales in Vancouver declined 55% to start the year.
Sales in the GTA during January totalled 3,100, down from 5,594 a year ago, while the average selling price fell 16.4% to $1.04 million as the impact of higher mortgage rates continues to cool the real estate market.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TREB) reported that new listings across the GTA were down 3.7% in January at 7,688.
The continued slump in Toronto’s housing market comes after the Bank of Canada raised interest rates in January by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing its trendsetting interest rate to 4.50%.
The average interest rate charged on mortgages in Canada is now above 6%.
Vancouver Market Remains Weak
Across the country in Vancouver, home sales in January were cut in half from a year earlier and down 21% from the previous month of December.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said sales in January totalled 1,022, a 55% decrease from January 2021.
The number of homes that sold in January was 42.9% below the 10-year sales average for the month of January.
The real estate board blamed the decline on rising mortgage rates, which have pushed many would be homebuyer to put off purchasing a home.
The average house price in Vancouver is now $1.1 million, a 6.6% decrease from January 2022. The total number of homes listed for sale in Vancouver is currently 7,478, a 32% increase from this time last year.
