Housing heats up in July

Condos hit record sales, price of low-rise houses skyrocket out of sight

The month of July was a scorcher for more than just weather as Toronto hit another record month for house sales and appears bound for a record year.

Leading the way were condos — with sales up 14.4 per cent year over year last month — as the price of low-rise houses, especially detached homes, continued to skyrocket out of sight, according to figures released by the Toronto Real Estate Board Thursday.

There were 9,880 house and condo transactions in July — up 8 per cent from July 2014 and a record for what’s usually a slower month for home sales. The average sale price hit a new high of $609,236 last month, up 10.6 per cent over a year ago, says TREB, with detached homes seeing the highest price growth of all housing types at 13.2 per cent.

The previous sales record was set in 2007, when 93,193 homes were bought and sold across the GTA. The average selling price back then, however, was just $376,236.

While detached homes in the soughtafter city of Toronto surpassed the average sale price of $1 million mark earlier this year, the average price of a detached house in the city of Toronto actually dipped slightly in July to an average of $996,770 — a likely reflection more of the types of detached sold than any decline in overall value as bidding wars continue to dominate the house market in the face of a continuing shortage of listings.

A balanced market — where buyers and sellers are on a somewhat equal footing — is considered six months’ worth of housing inventory available for purchase. Toronto hasn’t seen that in years as supply continues to lag behind demand: New listings were down 2.5 per cent in July and total active listings were down a stunning 14.7 per cent, according to TREB’s figures.

“With the level of inventory in the GTA trending below two months, many things contributed to generate a lot of interest from buyers,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, in a statement. “Not surprisingly, this supported further price increases well above the rate of inflation. Assuming similar interest rate and economic environments over the next five months, strong price growth will remain the norm for the rest of 2015.”