| Real Estate Market

The GTA Market Begins to Recover After Lockdown
Things are looking brighter for the Greater Toronto Area’s real estate community. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) President Lisa Patel announced 8,701 recorded sales through the MLS system in June 2020, a substantial 84 percent seasonally adjusted increase. On a year-over-year basis, the month’s sales came in at a 1.4 percent decrease, marking a steady return to normalcy.

New listings were also up by 2.1 compared to the same period last year, however active listings on the MLS System clocked in at a 28.8 percent decrease compared to June 2019. New listings growth will likely need to overtake growth in sales for a few months before the number of active listings match last year’s levels.

The MLS Home Price Index Composite Benchmark saw 8.2 percent year-over-year increase and the average selling price for all home types was recorded at $930,869, an 11.9 percent increase. “Following the broader movement to reopen the economy in June, we experienced a very positive result in terms of home sales and selling prices. Before the onset of COVID-19, there was a great deal of pent-up demand in the market. This pent-up demand arguably increased further over the past three months.” said Ms. Patel.

While we are in the early days of recovery, TRREB foresees stronger market conditions in the second half of 2020 as this demand is met with historically low mortgage rates and a gradually improving labour market.

The Condo Market Shows the First Signs of Recovery
Following a turbulent few months, stronger market conditions began to emerge in June 2020. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) recorded 8,701 sales through its MLS System – this is a marked 84 percent increase on May 2020’s sales. Compared to June 2019, sales came in at a 1.4 percent decrease, but considering May’s 53.2 year-over-year decrease, professionals and pundits are hopeful of a growing trend in economic recovery.

Average and benchmark selling prices were up year-over-year for all major home types.

But how did the condominium market fare? Condo sales totalled 1,793 for June, a 22.3 percent year-over-year decrease that places the condo market well behind the detached, semi-detached and townhouse markets. Simultaneously, condos had an average price of $631,704, the lowest average price of the housing markets, but are faring better compared to May 2020.

While there’s hope as the market slowly bounces back, it will be of vital importance to closely monitor housing market conditions as recovery continues from the latter half of 2020 and into 2021. “Policy makers should proceed cautiously with any demand-side stimulus. The persistent lack of listing inventory in the GTA understandably took a back seat to COVID related issues in the short term, but supply should once again be top-of-mind once the recovery takes hold, in order to ensure long-term affordability in the GTA,” said TRREB CEO John DiMichele.