Barry's Market Commentary
Who would have thought we’d have a thriving real estate market during a pandemic? The real estate market continues its upward trend as home sales in the GTA were up again year-over-year for the fourth month in a row! Toronto Real Estate Board members sold 10,563 residential homes in October, up 25.1 % compared to 8,445 transactions in October 2019. Sales and new listings reached record levels for the month of October, but sales outstripped new listings, so our tight seller’s market continued with the average selling price for all home types combined reaching $968,318 – up 13.7 % compared to $851,877 in October 2019.
Though the market overall is incredibly strong, there really is a tale of two markets going on, as houses and condos are performing wildly different. Square footage has become paramount as a result of covid, causing the detached market annual sales growth to far outstrip the growth in new listings, and prices have increased sharply. The average selling price for detached homes in the city was $1,470,000, a 11.2 per cent increase. While the 905 area saw average prices rise by 18% to $1,124,000 as people seem to have accepted that they will be working from home for some time and might as well have some more space.
Condos on the other hand are experiencing a pull back in prices due to the lack of immigration, travel, in person classes at universities/colleges, and investors looking to cash out after a strong run. New listing inventory has more than doubled, wiping out considerable growth, and prices are now flat year over year, with an average selling price of $622,122.