GTA Real­tors report sales up first two weeks of July

In the first two weeks of July, Greater Toronto Real­tors reported 4,437 sales – up an amaz­ing 27% com­pared to the first two weeks of July 2008. The aver­age price for these trans­ac­tions is also ris­ing, up 4% year-over-year to $394,750.

Com­ment: So that is 6 weeks in a row aver­ag­ing 27% more than last year. But of course, accord­ing to all of the experts, this is just a blip. May saw a record num­ber of million-dollar homes sell. June was the best ever. And now July is post­ing even bet­ter num­bers than June. And this is with mort­gage rates ris­ing a full per­cent­age point. I guess a meteor is com­ing to smash every­thing to bits… that is the only way this is going to come crash­ing down.

“The resur­gence in home own­er­ship demand expe­ri­enced in the spring has con­tin­ued into the sum­mer. Home buy­ers con­tin­ued to take advan­tage afford­able mar­ket con­di­tions in the first half of July,” said Toronto Real Estate Board Pres­i­dent Tom Lebour. “If the mid-month results carry for­ward, we may see the best July on record.”

Com­ment: Two record months in a row, for over­all per­for­mance. And a record in May for a sin­gle mar­ket seg­ment. I know I said we would be see­ing great num­bers this year, but no one agreed.

Year-to-date sales, at 45,213, are down 4% com­pared to 2008. Aver­age price, at $384,645 is down one per cent.

Com­ment: With the dis­as­trous start to the year, this is really not unex­pected. And to be down only 4% and 1% in vol­ume and price, that is very very lit­tle. Another good month and we will be see­ing bet­ter YTD num­bers than we did in 2008.

“The Greater Toronto real estate mar­ket has held up very well this year given the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate, espe­cially rel­a­tive to past eco­nomic slow-downs,” explained Jason Mer­cer, TREB’s Senior Man­ager of Mar­ket Analy­sis.

Com­ment: That is the under­state­ment of the year.

“The cost of bor­row­ing has been key. With infla­tion in check, the Bank of Canada has been able to aggres­sively lower inter­est rates – an option that wasn’t avail­able in the early 1990s or early 1980s.”

Sum­mary Of July Sales And Aver­age Price

City of Toronto (sales +24% | price 0%)
2009 – Sales Vol­ume: 1,703 | Aver­age Price: $419,754
2008 – Sales Vol­ume: 1,369 | Aver­age Price: $419,199

Rest of GTA (905) (sales +28% | price +7%)
2009 – Sales Vol­ume: 2,734 | Aver­age Price: $379,174
2008 – Sales Vol­ume: 2,128 | Aver­age Price: $353,257

All of GTA (416 + 905) (sales +27% | price +4%)
2009 – Sales Vol­ume: 4,437 | Aver­age Price: $394,750
2008 – Sales Vol­ume: 3,497 | Aver­age Price: $379,072

Com­ment: What is truly inter­est­ing to me is that the 905 is post­ing big­ger gains than the city itself. For many many months pre­vi­ous to this, it has usu­ally been the 416 that leads the increase in sales and prices. To me, this means that a lot of peo­ple are being priced out of the Toronto mar­ket and are look­ing to the sub­urbs to find a suit­able home. Toronto con­dos are pop­u­lar, but they are not for every­one. And when decent houses in decent areas get into the $400–500,000 range (or more), peo­ple have to find alternatives.

For a com­plete copy of the Mar­ket Watch Report visit www​.Toron​to​Re​alEstate​Board​.com. Greater Toronto Real­tors are pas­sion­ate about their work. They adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and share a state-of-the-art Mul­ti­ple List­ing Ser­vice. Serv­ing over 28,000 Mem­bers in the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto Real Estate Board is Canada’s largest real estate board.

————————————————————————————————————

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

————————————————————————————————————

Incom­ing search terms