Housing prices are up in parts of Toronto

Not all areas in GTA hit by downturn

TORONTO• Is there anywhere to hide in Toronto’ s falling housing market? Just maybe.

A report from RE/ MAX INTEGRA Ontario- Atlantic Region on Thursday looked at detached homes in 65 neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area over the first half of 2017, comparing the first quarter to the second quarter. The second quarter was impacted by Ontario’s 16-point housing plan.

“This is really neighbourhood- by- neighbourhood and not the whole GTA,” said Christopher Alexander, a regional director with the company, explaining why some pockets may have bucked the overall downward trend. “Different neighbourhoods have seen different price appreciation, some in double digits.”

The best-performing GTA district in the detached category was Brock, northeast of Toronto, where average prices rose 11.73 per cent to 562,7 11 from the first to second quarter. Caledon, to the northwest, was second with prices up 8.61 per cent during the period, climbing to $ 1,127,414 from $1,037,997.

Toronto’s C09 district, home to the city’s tony Rosedale neighbourhood, was the worst performer. Average detached home prices dropped 21.6 per cent during the period to $3,331,250 from $4,249,438.

“Home- buying activity in the GTA has been a tale of two markets — a tight, record-breaking first quarter and a softer second quarter, characterized by easing sales and overall average price — a result of the introduction of the provincial government’s Fair Housing Plan,” Alexander said.

Among the key changes brought in by the province on April 20 — about three weeks into the second quarter — was a 15 per cent nonresident speculation tax and expanded rent control rules that set increases to inflation for buildings constructed after 1991. Mid-month numbers sent to brokers from the Toronto Real Estate Board show prices continue to fall in Canada’s largest city. The average selling price across the GTA was $760,356 from July 1 to 14, well off the $920,791 peak set in April.

The average detached home across the GTA sold for $ 1,015,333 over the first two weeks of July, a 6.6 per cent increase from a year earlier. But that’s down from $1,205,262 at the end of April.

“Now that things are returning to normal the numbers look pretty bad, but if you look to 2015 levels we are still doing very well,” Alexander said. “A lot of the areas that are cooling are because prices went up so much in the first quarter they became unaffordable. If you need to sell your house, and you bought three years ago in those neighbourhoods, you have still done pretty well.”

Re/ Max says Toronto is heading into buyers’ territory with characteristics such as conditional offers making it into the marketplace again. “That’s a real good thing. Buyers had no choices in Q1, buyers faced competition and had no time to make educated, well-thought-out decisions,” said Alexander. “The current lull may represent the best buying opportunity in recent years.”

ACTIVITY IN THE GTA HAS BEEN A TALE OF TWO MARKETS.