Smog by Simon Carr
The real estate market continued its trend from earlier this year and is on a clear upward trajectory since the beginning of 2013. The sellers' market has been getting stronger last month, with the number of listings declining as the avid buyers increasingly put pressure on the market and sucked up a lot of inventory in August 2014.
The stats support this as there was a 2.8 per cent increase in sales from 7,391 transactions taking place in August 2013, to 7,600 transactions taking place in August 2014. There were 6,904 active listings in the City of Toronto in August 2014, which is 2.76 per cent down from the same period last year, when 7,097 properties were up for sale.
City of Toronto Sales Activity in August 2014
Naturally, this resulted in price growth. The average price of a detached property in Toronto went up by 14.7 per cent year-over-year to $902,428. The pressure will likely continue throughout the fall, when we predict a rise in new listings and strong sales, given the still favourable mortgage rates.
All in all, we are now in a healthy market fuelled by the limited inventory in townhouses, semi-detached and fully detached homes. Sellers of these properties are set to benefit.
Unlike any other large city in North America we enjoy a relatively high percentage of the population owning their homes. With the current mortgage rates, ownership housing is still affordable to most.
City of Toronto Listings Activity in August 2014 - Infographic
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