Toronto June home sales show pent-up demand continues

Toronto Real Estate Board President Dianne Usher announced that both sales and new listings were up substantially during the first 14 days of June 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.

“If the first two weeks of June are any indication, we may be seeing a turnaround in the supply of homes for sale in the Greater Toronto Area. New listings were up on a year-over-year basis for most major home types in the City of Toronto and surrounding regions. However, sales growth outpaced growth in new listings, which suggests that there is still a lot of pent-up demand yet to be satisfied, so sellers’ market conditions will likely remain in place for the remainder of 2014,” said Ms. Usher.

Sales reported through the TorontoMLS system during the first two weeks of June amounted to 4,938 – up by 11.3 per cent in comparison to 2013. New listings were up over the same period by 7.8 per cent to 8,825.

The average selling price for June mid-month transactions was $582,100, which represented an increase of 8.6 per cent compared to the average of $535,865 in 2013.

“Average selling prices were up across the GTA for low-rise home types like singles, semis and townhouses as well as for condominium apartments. This is no surprise given that the number of transactions was up compared to 2013 by a greater rate than the number of new listings, which suggests that competition between buyers arguably increased,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.