The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market continued its adjustment to higher borrowing costs in September 2022. Sales for the month reached 5,038, but were down by 44.1 per cent compared to September 2021. New listings were also down on a year-over-year basis by 16.7 per cent to 11,237. This was the lowest number of new listings reported for the month of September since 2002. This is especially troublesome given that the stock of homes in the GTA increased markedly over the last 20 years.
The average sales price in the City of Toronto has shown a slight increase over the August figure and has shown a 2.6% decrease compared to September 2021. In Simcoe County, the average sales price has increased since last month but showed a slight decrease of .9% compared to September of last year. York Region’s average sales price was down since August and decreased 8.3% compared to September 2021. More detailed information on each of these areas can be found in the charts below.
We must ensure that the temporary dip in housing demand is not allowed to mask the critical shortage of homes available for sale in the GTA. Candidates running in the upcoming Ontario municipal elections must ensure home buyers and renters have adequate housing options in the years to come. Municipal council decisions have a direct impact on housing affordability, in terms of the protracted development approval processes, high development fees and other related policies that preclude timely housing development, said TRREB President Kevin Crigger.
Elected councils must also reconsider existing policies that preclude homeowners from listing their homes for sale, including significant added upfront costs like the land transfer tax. Potential new policies like mandatory home energy audits could also create unnecessary interference and delays in the home selling process and dissuade some homeowners from listing their homes for sale, said TRREB CEO John DiMichele. The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite benchmark was up on a year-over-year basis by 4.3 per cent. Over the same period of time, the average price dipped by 4.3 per cent to $1,086,762. The average price was up compared to August 2022.
Hovering just below $1.1 million, the average selling price may have found some support during the last couple months of summer. With new listings down quite substantially year-over-year and well-below historic norms, some home buyers are quite possibly experiencing tighter market conditions in some GTA neighbourhoods. October generally represents the peak of the fall market, so it will be important to see where price trends head over the next month, said TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer.
If you have questions about the real estate market, or are thinking about buying or selling and are not sure where to start, please reach out! I would love to help!
*Source – Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, September 2022
