Home sales in the Toronto region will start to climb again in 2019 after two years of declining, but Ottawa should nonetheless rethink a tough new mortgage rule that is a drag on the market, the Toronto Real Estate Board said.
TREB, which represents real estate agents in the Greater Toronto Area, predicts 83,000 homes will sell in the region in 2019, a 7.3-per-cent increase from 77,375 in 2018. That would be a turnaround from 2018, when total home sales fell 16.1 per cent in the GTA after an 18.3-per-cent sales decline in 2017.
“Although we won’t experience record levels, we do expect to see a better year in 2019 for sales and selling prices,” said TREB
Home sales rose slightly year over year in January. The 4,009 transactions in the first month of 2019 was only .6 per cent higher than the same level last year, but was up 3.4 per cent from December, according to preliminary seasonally adjusted figures.
The average price of a detached house in the region was $941,488 last month, a 2.8 per cent year over year decline. Condos averaged $548,176, up 7.9 per cent compared to January 2018. Apartments and higher-density ground-level homes such as town houses are seeing better price gains simply because they are more affordable said TREB director of market analysis Jason Mercer.
The average Toronto area re-sale home price rose 1.7 per cent year over year in January to $748,328, including single-family homes and condos, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), which is forecasting a 4 per cent annual price increase for 2019.
That means homes that sold for $787,195 on average in 2018, would increase to $820,000 across all housing categories. But condos are expected to continue driving price growth this year, with detached houses anticipated to lag again.
An Ipsos consumer home buying survey for the real estate board being released Wednesday will show a dip in home owners expecting to list their properties next year but a slight increase in those looking to buy, said TREB’s press release. This will leads to tight seller market situation where scarce listings and more buyers.
“Market conditions in January, as represented by the relationship between sales and listings, continued to support moderate year-over-year price increases, regardless of the price measure considered,” TREB said.
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