Toronto home prices hit $499,045 in January
Low interest rates, and low inventories of houses for sale, helped push house prices up almost 9 per cent across the GTA this January over last, according to statistics released by the Toronto Real Estate Board Friday. The average sale price across the GTA hit $463,534 in January. But the average price of ahome in the 416 area code came in just shy of $500,000 — $499,045 — compared to $442,380 in the 905 regions, TREB says. Some 4,567 GTA homes changed hands through the MLS system last month, up 8.8 per cent from almost 4,200 sales in January, 2011. “Low inventory levels have kept competition between buyers strong, resulting in robust annual rates of price growth over the last year,” said TREB senior market analyst Jason Mercer. The supply is so short that some properties have sparked intense bidding wars.
A week ago, an older, four-bedroom, 1,200square-foot house in Mimico sparked a 31person bidding war and eventually sold for $570,000, almost $200,000 over the $379,900 asking price.
There were 12,868 homes for sale across the GTA as of the end of December, an unusually low two months’ worth.
A normal level even for this slow period is 15,000-16,000.
That means if nothing new were to come on the market, it would take two months to sell what’s out there now. Up until 2007, the Toronto market traditionally had about three months’ worth of supply.
TREB is hoping that the higher prices will encourage more people to list their homes, which could see more inventory come on the market in the second half of this year.