Toronto housing market booms, Vancouver falls

TORONTO (CP) — Real estate sales figures in January are reinforcing suggestions that Canada’s two most widely watched housing markets will take divergent paths this year, with Toronto set to continue its boom while Vancouver faces a possible correction.

Sales in the Greater Toronto Area picked up last month where 2016 left off, with 5,188 transactions compared to 4,460 in January 2016, an increase of 11.8 per cent, the Toronto Real Estate Board said Friday. Toronto’s sales gain came despite a 17.6 per cent drop in the number of new GTA listings, down from 8,906 to 7,338 year-over-year.

Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, said the number of active listings on the board’s MLS system at the end of January was essentially half of what was reported as available at the same time last year.

“That statistic, on its own, tells us that there is a serious supply problem in the GTA,” Mercer said in a statement. “The result will be very strong price growth for all home types again this year.”

Meanwhile, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Thursday that home sales in January in Metro Vancouver dropped by 39.5 per cent year-over-year, from 2,519 to 1,523.

B.C. government data has shown a steep drop in real estate transactions in the Vancouver area after the provincial government brought in a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers last August. The market had been showing signs of softening prior to the tax after months of scorching sales.