The record-breaking in the Greater Toronto Area continues! Home sales for April 2021 clocked in at four times the amount of April 2020, the first complete month of the pandemic. However, sales and new listings did suffer a month-over-month decline.
TRREB’s MLS System recorded a total of 13,663 sales for the month, a 12.7 percent decrease compared to March 2021. However, compared to the ten-year sales average of 10,000 for April 2010 to the April 2019 period, April 2021 sales were up by 36.6 percent.
New listings performed similarly and were down by 8.4 percent compared to March 2021, but over triple the listings compared with the same period last year. Compared to the ten-year new listings average, April 2021 listings were up by 18.3 percent.
The MLS Home Price Index Composite benchmark rose by 17.8 percent compared to April of last year and increased on a month-over-month basis, but the pace of monthly growth decelerated.
“It makes sense that we had a pullback in market activity compared to March. We’ve experienced a torrid pace of home sales since the summer of 2020 while seeing little in the way of population growth. We may be starting to exhaust the pool of potential buyers within the existing GTA population. Over the long term, sustained growth in sales requires sustained growth in population,” said TRREB President Lisa Patel.
The Condo Market Bounce Back Is In Full Swing
The Condo Market is alive and kicking once more. Year-over-year growth in Q1 of 2021 condominium apartment sales overtook growth in listings for the same period in the GTA. Average prices were also above the averages of Q1 2020 for the areas surrounding the city of Toronto due to tightening market conditions.
GTA Realtors reported 9,398 sales for this year’s first quarter, an increase of 79.8 on Q1 2020’s 5,226 sales. New listings for Q1 2021 tallied 11,373, a marked 42.8 percent increase over the period last year.
“While the condo market was slower to recover compared to low-rise market segments, many realtors have noted a marked increase in condo interest since the beginning of 2021. This interest will likely continue to increase as the economy improves and vaccine take-up accelerates, resulting in more confidence for first-time buyers,” said TRREB’s President Lisa Patel.
The average selling price for condos, which decreased to $645,219, was 1.4 percent lower than last year’s level. The decline in the overall selling price for the Greater Toronto Area was driven by a 4.7 percent decline in the average selling price in Toronto to $675,844 during the same period.
An Ipsos poll conducted in the late fall last year points towards a substantial number of people intending on buying their first home in 2021. “The condominium apartment is the logical entry point into the ownership market,” said Jason Mercer, TRREB’s Chief Market Analyst.
