Monthly market update – January 2020

The last month of the year for the Greater Toronto Area real estate market can be summed up in two words: growth and change.

Closing up the decade, in 2019 the number of sold homes amounted to around 87,500 properties, a growth of 12% compared to 2018 but still below the decade average of 91,000 properties.

This number should come as no surprise since the supply on the market has been steadily dropping over time, resulting in lesser months of inventory of 1.7 (the decade average is 2.2) and a higher sales-to-listing ratio of 82% which is significantly higher than the decade average of 70%.

As a result, prices have gone up to an average of $843,637, steadily closing up to the all-time high price of $918,130 from April 2017.

As for condos, there hasn’t been much of a change looking at year-to-year numbers. Condos haven’t been as popular as semis/rows/towns or detached homes and marked growth of only 1% on a year-to-year basis. As a comparison, 24% more detached homes were sold and 15% more semis/rows/towns. Central Toronto also marked a decline in condo sales on a year-to-year basis, dropping by 0.2%.

However, the minimal amount of growth in the number of condos sold doesn’t depict their price. In fact, condo prices have marked a sharp rise of 11%, coming up to their record average sale price of $617,658. This sharp increase in price is potentially a result of condo owners keeping hold of their condos as rentals, which is expected to cause condo prices to keep rising more over the next few years.

We’ve noticed a couple more signs of the Greater Toronto Area real estate market heating up. The number of sales of homes priced at over $1 million increased by 53%, while those priced between $1.79 and $1.99 million marked a 51% year-over-year growth. But the biggest difference was noticed in properties priced between $1 million to $1.249 million. On an annual basis, the number of properties that were sold in this price range grew for a whopping 245 sales.

These numbers subdue at the $2 million properties whose sales grew only by 6%, but still marked growth in sales nonetheless.

Detached homes became a huge hit in the York Region and Halton Region, with sales increasing for more than 34% compared to last year. The median price of detached homes in Central Toronto increased by 3%, coming up to $1.76 million, but overall sales went down by 2%.

Overall, we can notice that property prices in the Greater Toronto Area have risen as a result of the drop in supply. This price growth is most significant in condos, whose price grows three times faster than the price of other housing types. However, in 2020, it is expected that the condo market will find its balance and prices will settle on a normalized level.

Because supply is constantly declining, property prices for homes in the Greater Toronto Area are expected to keep rising in the future, especially in hotter areas such as Central Toronto.

Monthly market update – January 2020 first appeared on:
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