Home prices inch up in June to an average of $807,871
Average price of resale homes in Toronto increased 3.3 per cent over May’s $805,320
There are signs the needle has finally moved in a positive direction on the region’s sagging real estate market.
The number of sales and the average resale home price showed slight yearover-year gains in June, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) reported Thursday.
The average price of resale homes in the region — including detached and semi-detached houses, townhouses and apartments — rose 2 per cent to $807,871 year over year and 3.3 per cent over May’s average price of $805,320.
There were also 2.4 per cent more sales last month than June 2017 — a monthover-month increase of 17.6 per cent after a preliminary seasonal adjustment.
The upward movement is a sign “home buyers are starting to move back into the market,” said TREB president Garry Bhaura.
“Market conditions appear to be tightening, with sales accounting for a greater share of listings, as new listings have dropped compared to last year,” he said in a press release Thursday.
But a preliminary seasonal adjustment also showed a 4.8-per-cent year-overyear drop in home prices, according to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Home Price Index.
The index also showed marked differences in different markets within the Toronto region, with some areas outside the city continuing to struggle.
York Region had a 14.7-per-cent overall year-over-year decline in the housing price index across all home categories, led by a 16.7-per-cent drop in detached house prices.
The city of Toronto, however, saw a 1.3-per-cent overall price increase, prompted largely by a 9.1-per-cent rise in the cost of a condo.
Detached house prices were down in the city, but only by 7.14 per cent.
The average detached house price in the city was $1.36 million.
In the 905-area communities it was $928,560.
Toronto condo prices were up 9.5 per cent compared to June 2017 — to $605,530.
Those units sold for $450,672, or 3.4 per cent more than the same month last year in the communities outside Toronto’s borders.
TREB attributed at least some of the difference between the index price and the average cost to a different mix of homes with lowrise resale houses — detached, semis and towns — accounting for a greater share of the total June sales this year compared to last.
The real estate board expects sales to improve over the coming year.
But without more listings on the market “competition between buyers could increase, exerting increased upward pressure on home prices,” said Jason Mercer, TREB director of market analysis.
The real estate board’s index shows an 11.2-per-cent decline in detached house prices across the region this year to date, compared to the first six months of 2017.
Condo prices in the city have risen 7.5 per cent in the first half of this year compared to last year.