One in five neigh­bour­hoods have sur­passed pre-recession aver­age price levels

Canada News Wire

In the midst of the reces­sion, approx­i­mately 20% of single-detached homes and con­do­mini­ums in Toronto neigh­bour­hoods man­aged to post an increase in aver­age price, accord­ing to RE/MAX.

Com­ment: Remem­ber, though, the Bank of Canada has announced that the reces­sion is over. And with stocks up, retails sales up, con­sumer con­fi­dence up and real estate sales up – I think we can see it for ourselves.

The RE/MAX Return on Invest­ment Report found that 11 (17%) of the 65 Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) dis­tricts reported an upswing in the value of a single-detached home in the first six months of 2009, despite one of the worst first quar­ters on record.

The Beach (E02) saw the great­est per­cent­age increase year-over-year at 3.79%, with aver­age price ris­ing to $715,422, up from $689,278 in June, 2008. Pick­er­ing (E13) placed sec­ond, with the aver­age price of a single-detached home climb­ing 3.72% to $389,536, up from $375,577 from one year ear­lier. Wil­low­dale, New­ton­brook (C14) ranked third, with a single-detached home ris­ing in value from $754,470 to $779,537 – a 3.32% increase. Round­ing out the top five neigh­bour­hoods are new­com­ers Downsview, Weston (W04) – where prices have climbed 2.25% to $384,485 from $376,007, and Rouge, Malvern (E11) where a 1.99% uptick has brought year-to-date hous­ing val­ues to $345,468 (from $338,738).

“Pur­chasers clearly moved to take advan­tage of greater afford­abil­ity in the mar­ket­place in the first half of the year,” says Michael Pol­zler, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada. “Prices were down in vir­tu­ally every neigh­bour­hood sur­veyed; sup­ply of homes listed for sale was at an all-time high; and inter­est rates were at his­toric lev­els. If you’re a buyer, it doesn’t get much bet­ter than that.”

Given their more afford­able price point, con­do­minium prop­er­ties fared slightly bet­ter than single-detached homes, with 13 (22%) of 59 TREB dis­tricts post­ing an increase in aver­age price. Con­dos in Clif­fcrest, Guild­wood (E08) in the city’s east end saw the great­est appre­ci­a­tion in value, with aver­age price climb­ing 6.45% to $175,855, up from $165,197 one year ago. North Toronto, Cricket Club (C04) ranked sec­ond with a 6.1% increase in aver­age price, bring­ing con­do­minium val­ues to $301,065 (up from $283,746). Downsview, Weston (W04) clinched third spot, with a 4.37% increase in aver­age price to $173,083 in June 2009, up from $165,834 one year ear­lier. Mississauga’s thriv­ing Port Credit com­mu­nity (W12) expe­ri­enced a 2.63% increase in con­do­minium val­ues year-over-year – with aver­age price hov­er­ing at $304,954. Ben­dale, Woburn, and West Hill com­prise E09, where the aver­age price of a condo appre­ci­ated 2.46% over fig­ures reported one year ago to $201,830.

“But that was then and this is now,” says Pol­zler. “Lower inven­tory lev­els com­bined with increased demand – com­pa­ra­ble to what we’ve seen in recent months – is expected to place renewed pres­sure on hous­ing val­ues for the remain­der of the year. As a result, aver­age prices are fore­cast to be at par or slightly ahead of last year’s lev­els by year-end in almost all neighbourhoods.”

Case in point is areas like Toronto’s east end, where bid­ding wars are break­ing out on single-detached prop­er­ties daily. The aver­age sale-to-list price ratio in E01 and E02 approaches 100%. Aver­age prices are up in four of the 18 East Dis­trict neigh­bour­hoods. Over­all aver­age price in the east is down less than 1% to $346,597 from the Jan­u­ary to June 2008 figure.

The areas with the high­est per­cent­age decreases in the aver­age price of a single-detached home have also seen the great­est increases in the num­ber of prop­er­ties sold. The over­all aver­age price of a single-detached home fell by 5.17% in the Cen­tral Dis­trict to $884,036, down from $932,198 one year ago, while the North Dis­trict dropped 4.49% in value to $526,693, down from $551,452 in June 2008. Sales are up in both areas, with 2,000 homes chang­ing hands in the cen­tral area (up 4.28% over one year ago) and 4,249 prop­er­ties sold in the north (up 3% from June 2008).

Only one dis­trict reported an over­all increase in the aver­age price. Con­do­mini­ums in the North Dis­trict – com­prised mostly of York Region – posted a 0.26% increase in val­ues – and now hover at $275,822, com­pared with $275,113 one year ago.

“The momen­tum going for­ward is expected to be healthy – buoyed by pos­i­tive eco­nomic data and a return to sta­bil­ity in the finan­cial sec­tor,” says Pol­zler. “There may be some bumps along the road, but all in all, the worst is over for the res­i­den­tial real estate in the Greater Toronto Area.”

————————————————————————————————————

Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion  -  416−388−1960

————————————————————————————————————

Related posts:

1. Toronto Real Estate Fore­cast 2010 MLS® sales in the GTA will hit a record high…
2. Toronto Real Estate 2009 Year In Review Sales growth in the Toronto Real Estate Board’s dif­fer­ent districts…
3. Real estate sales rocket to record lev­els The Toronto real estate mar­ket has fol­lowed a record-breaking June…
4. Beach home prices lead GTA Despite a reces­sion, the aver­age price of a home (including…
5. Heated hous­ing activ­ity through­out 2009 lends lit­tle air to bub­ble the­ory While one quar­ter of all Toronto Real Estate Board districts…