Toronto market revives, Vancouver stays soft
TORONTO Toronto home sales jumped the most in more than a decade last month, a sign that Canada’s biggest housing market is rebounding from the chill brought on by tighter lending regulations and higher borrowing costs in the past few months.
Sales in June rose 2.4 per cent from June 2017, according to data released Thursday by the Toronto Real Estate Board. Seasonally adjusted sales climbed 18 per cent from May, the biggest onemonth gain since 2004.
Prices also stabilized. The average home price rose two per cent from a year earlier to $807,871, and increased 3.3 per cent from May on a seasonally adjusted basis. The benchmark price, which measures the value of a typical home, was flat on the month.
The jump in sales and prices follow several months of declines, largely brought on by a wave of regulations instituted to calm a market that jumped to record heights and was fuelled by speculative buying. Prices have started to stabilize in the past few months after peaking in April 2017.
“Home buyers are starting to move back into the market, with sales trending up from last year’s lows,” board president Garry Bhaura said in a statement. “Market conditions appear to be tightening, with sales accounting for a greater share of listings, as new listing have dropped compared to last year.”
New listings dropped 19 per cent from a year ago to 15,922. Active listings rose 5.9 per cent to 20,844 from 19,680 last year.
“The expectation is to see improvement in sales over the next year,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis and service channels.
“Over the same period, however, it is likely that issues surrounding the supply of listings will persist. This suggests that competition between buyers could increase, exerting increased upward pressure on home prices.”
Vancouver’s housing market showed continued signs of weakness in June, as affordability worries curb demand from buyers.
Sales were down 14 per cent compared with May, the first monthly decline since January when tougher federal mortgage rules took effect, according to a report Wednesday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. The number of transactions was 29 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of June, the group said. Adjusting for seasonality, sales fell by about five per cent to the lowest since 2013, according to Bloomberg calculations.
“Buyers are less active today. This is allowing the supply of homes for sale to accumulate to levels we haven’t seen in the last few years,” Phil Moore, the Vancouver board’s president, said in a statement.