Toronto Real Estate Market Report

Greater Toronto Area home sales, new listings and home prices were up in July 2023 in comparison to July 2022. This is the second time this year it has happened, June and July. This is the big news, as we have not seen YoY increases in sales and prices since February 2022, the peak before the BoC rate hikes slowed sales by 40% and dropped prices by 20%.

Real estate sales continued to be above last year’s levels in July, which suggests that many people have adjusted to the new, higher borrowing costs. With that being said, it does appear that the sales momentum that we experienced earlier in the spring has stalled somewhat. Some would say it is because of the Bank of Canada rate hikes in June and July. I also suggest that it has a lot to do with the normal slowdown in the market seen in July and August. Likely a bit of both…

Of course, the persistent lack of listings for people to purchase compared to previous years has helped keep the sales volume down. People simply cannot buy what isn’t for sale. There were 5,250 sales in July 2023 – a 7.8% increase over July 2022. Interestinly, during the same period, new listings were also up, by an even greater rate of 11.5%.

If we could string together a few months of listings increasing faster than sales, we could get inventory levels up and help slow price increases. As it is, the average selling price last month was up by 4.2% to $1,118,374. I still stand by my prediction from 2022 that 2023 would end up with a higher average price than 2022. And we seem headed in that direction.

Everything from the normal summer slowdown to uncertainty about borrowing costs, jobs and the overall economy has impacted home sales over the last two months. Heck, over the past year and a half, reall. But, over the long term, the demand for housing will remain strong and trends will continue upward.