Summer slide in Toronto home prices ends in September

TORONTO — The average price of a home sold in the Toronto area last month climbed higher on a month-over-month basis for the first time since hitting a record in April.

The average price has been falling since April when the Ontario government announced plans to try and cool the hot housing market including the introduction of a tax on foreign buyers.

The Toronto Real Estate Board said Wednesday the average selling price for a home sold in September was $775,546, up 5.9 per cent from $732,039 in August.

Compared with a year ago, the average price of a home sold in the Greater Toronto Area was up 2.6 per cent.

The rise came as the number of homes sold in the Greater Toronto Area totalled 6,379 in September, down 35 per cent from 9,830 in the same month last year. There were 6,335 homes sold in the GTA in August this year.

Royal Bank senior economist Robert Hogue estimated the Toronto market has had two straight months of balanced demand-supply conditions and that the downward price pressures have eased.

However, he added that this doesn’t mean prices are about to rebound.

“Rising interest rates, poor affordability and the possibility of further policy tightening will generate significant headwinds for local buyers,” Hogue wrote in a report.

The number of new listings in the Toronto area on the Multiple Listing Service increased to 16,469 in September, up 9.4 per cent from a year earlier.

The average price for condos was up 23.2 per cent to $520,411 and the average price for semi-detached houses was up 7.4 per cent to $752,379.