Subbu Iyer

The trend of robust activity in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market continued in February, with multiple-buyers competing for the available listings. As demand heated up, double-digit price growth continued, with the average price for GTA homes officially eclipsing the $1 million mark for the first time in history.

Last month, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board forecast that the average selling price for a GTA home would rise about 10% this year to pass $1 million dollars, though they didn’t forecast it would happen quite so quickly.

The average price of a home in the region — including all types of houses and condos — rose 14.9% year-over-year to $1.05 million last month, according to TRREB.

According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), there were 10,970 sales recorded in February — a 52.5% increase compared to 7,193 sales reported during the same month in 2020.

The board said buyers remained confident in their employment situations and took advantage of ultra-low borrowing costs, which helped push the average selling price of a detached house in the 905 to $1.3 million — 27.8% above February 2020. Here in Toronto, detached houses sold for $1.7 million on average — a 13.2% annualized increase.

While market conditions were tight throughout the GTA region last month, the detached, semi-detached, and townhouse market segments in suburban areas were the drivers of average price growth, with annual rates of increase above 20% in all three cases.

Condo activity also heated up last month, with transactions up 64.3% year-over-year, after 3,116 sales were recorded. The 416-area accounted for 2,167 sales (up 63.2%), while the 905-area saw 949 condos change hands, a 66.8% year-over-year increase.

Condo prices also continued to climb in the 905 areas — up 5.4% year-over-year to an average of $563,587, while prices for apartments continued to fall in Toronto, declining 6.4% compared to last February to an average price of $676,837.

Reference: https://cutt.ly/5l3fX7C