Latest news with #TorontoRealEstate
Bloomberg
04-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Toronto Home Prices Fall for a Seventh Month as Economy Slows
Home prices in Toronto fell for a seventh consecutive month as fallout from US tariffs caused Canada's economy to slow. The benchmark price of a home in the country's largest city slipped 0.9% in June from May, hitting C$978,200 ($720,164), according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Toronto home sales rise to five-month high in June
By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) -Greater Toronto Area home sales rose for a third straight month in June and prices extended their recent decline, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board data showed on Friday. Seasonally adjusted sales increased 8.1% on a month-over-month basis to 5,068 units, marking the highest level since January. TRREB's home price index fell 0.9% to C$978,200 ($720,112), extending a string of declines since December. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) includes Toronto, Canada's most populous city, and four surrounding regional municipalities. "The GTA housing market continued to show signs of recovery in June," TRREB President Elechia Barry-Sproule said in a statement. "With more listings available, buyers are taking advantage of increased choice and negotiating discounts off asking prices. Combined with lower borrowing costs compared to a year ago, homeownership is becoming a more attainable goal for many households in 2025." The Bank of Canada has lowered its benchmark interest rate by 2-1/4 percentage points since June 2024 to support the economy which has shown signs of slowing as the U.S. wages a trade war. Canada sends about 75% of its exports to the United States. 'A firm trade deal with the United States accompanied by an end to cross-border sabre rattling would go a long way to alleviating a weakened economy and improving consumer confidence," said Jason Mercer, TRRE's Chief Information Officer. On a year-to-year basis, the price index was down 5.5%, while sales declined 2.4% and new listings were up 7.7%. ($1 = 1.3584 Canadian dollars) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GTA home sales down year-over-year in June, listings up: real estate board
TORONTO — Greater Toronto Area-home sales ticked 2.4 per cent lower in June compared with a year earlier as 6,243 properties changed hands, while new listings rose. The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says sales were up 8.1 per cent from May on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, as the housing market "continued to show signs of recovery." The board says 19,839 new properties were listed in the GTA last month, up 7.7 per cent compared with last year. TRREB president Elechia Barry-Sproule says that with more listings available and lower borrowing costs than this time last year, home ownership is becoming more attainable and buyers have been negotiating discounts on asking prices. The average selling price decreased 5.4 per cent compared with a year earlier to $1,101,691, and the composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 5.5 per cent year-over-year. Active listings hit 31,603 last month, up 30.8 per cent from June 2024's inventory of 24,169 homes. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025. Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press Sign in to access your portfolio
Globe and Mail
25-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Dog days come early for Toronto homesellers
Sellers in the Toronto-area real estate market are facing a slow and stifling summer as buyers take their time and negotiations drag on. Inventory ballooned in May from the same month last year, and sales remained historically low for a month that typically marks the height of the spring market. In the condo segment, buyers feel empowered by an abundance of listings, says Christopher Bibby, broker with Re/Max Hallmark Bibby Group Realty. Some can be ruthless in their negotiating tactics. In May, the average price for a condo apartment in central Toronto, where Mr. Bibby concentrates much of his business, was $758,214. That marks an 8 per cent slide from May of last year. 'That is a significant number,' says Mr. Bibby of the drop. Crunch time for Toronto home sellers as spring market heralds burst of activity 'Every deal has a story' in Toronto real estate Condo sales fell 21 per cent in the same period in central Toronto and active listings increased 14 per cent. As a result, units sometimes sit so long between showings that owners call to ask if their notifications are still active. 'This is the most active number of price reductions I've seen in my entire career,' says Mr. Bibby, who was selling real estate through the 2008 financial crisis. In some cases, condo owners who purchased in 2019 are looking at selling for less than they paid. Pritesh Parekh, real estate agent with Century 21 Legacy Ltd., says he has never experienced a market so steeply tilted in favour of buyers. Still, he says, prices have held up fairly well given the amount of supply. He points to data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board which shows the average price of a detached house dipped 5.4 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area last month from May, 2024 to stand at $1,425,264. Sales of all home types in the GTA dropped 13.3 per cent in May compared with the same month last year while active listings swelled by 41.5 per cent. Daren King, economist at National Bank of Canada, says market conditions in the GTA are at their softest since 2008-2009. Mr. King notes that overall sales rose 8.4 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis in May from April, but remained 29 per cent below their most recent peak in November. The sharp deterioration of the labour market in the GTA will limit the extent of any potential recovery in the market, Mr. King cautions in a note to clients. Mr. Parekh points out that many of the conditions that buyers were wishing for during the market frenzy – including more listings to choose from and cooler competition – are here, but buyers are still hesitant. He remembers taking buyers to newly listed properties and urging them to let him know right away if they wanted to make an offer. 'It's so vivid,' he says, recalling the fast pace. 'I would say, 'I'm going to sit in my car and draft an offer.' I didn't want to risk driving home.' Now Mr. Parekh is working with some first-time buyers who have their financing lined up and plenty of time to make decisions, but they are still fearful of how economic and political turmoil might affect them. Many buyers are also anticipating that interest rates will continue to fall, he says. Others are worried about unemployment. In one case, Mr. Parekh was working with a house hunter who had been looking for many, many months but always remained cautious. 'Then they actually lost their job. It actually happened in the GTA,' Mr. Parekh says of the moment the hypothetical became real. When word spreads amongst friends and family about a lost income, it undermines the confidence of other potential buyers. 'People start to think about their own security with their jobs.' Mr. Parekh says some buyers who do have steady employment may be able to take advantage of the current downturn in the market if they are planning to own the property for the medium to long-term. He doesn't see a quick turnaround any time soon. 'It feels like this time, it will be a slow transition to a different market,' he says. In the condo segment, Mr. Bibby has recently been stickhandling offers for eight of his listings. Only two so far have resulted in signed deals. In some cases, the two sides sign offers back and forth until they are close to an agreement, then the potential buyer walks away. The same buyer will return a day later with an offer $20,000 below their previous one. A week later, they reduce their offer to $50,000 below that. Mr. Bibby says the buyers playing hardball believe sellers are in distress, but for owners who bought their units years ago, that's often not the case. 'None of those eight people had to take what was in front of them,' he says. 'The buyers are looking for blood, but the sellers will decide what they're willing to accept.' He adds that high-pressure manoeuvres can backfire because they turn off sellers. 'They could do it with a little more dignity,' he says of buyers pushing for a deal. 'We don't want to sour the negotiation.' Mr. Bibby says some people planning to sell still contact him believing that they can achieve a 2021 price because their building, finishes or view is superior to the competition. 'I think the numbers that a lot of people have in their minds – those numbers are long gone.' It's important for potential sellers to understand that their ambitious price can quickly be undercut if a unit in the same building comes on the market with an asking price five per cent below that, he adds. When the lower price results in a sale, that becomes the new benchmark. Over the summer, the stream of new listings may slow in the condo segment, Mr. Bibby predicts. But he is already receiving calls from sellers who are looking optimistically towards the fall market. If positive signals emerge, such as the Bank of Canada cutting its key interest rate, or good news coming out of trade talks, the market may stabilize as prices come down and supply flattens out, he says. But Mr. Bibby doesn't see the basis for a strong rebound in the fall. 'Even if we recover, are we going to be better off in a year? I don't think so.' Mr. Bibby believes the current malaise is partly the unwinding of the unharnessed run-up in prices during 2020 and 2021. It will take time to work through the bloated inventory. 'Where we are today doesn't surprise me,' he says. 'The ingredients have been there for a long time.'
CTV News
19-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
32,000 more homes needed annually in Toronto to return to pre-pandemic rates: CMHC report
Construction is shown at the site of a new condominium project in downtown Toronto, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Toronto will need to build nearly 32,000 extra homes per year for the next decade for housing costs to dip back down to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released new estimates on Canada's housing supply gaps on Thursday, showing that a return to housing affordability levels last seen in 2019 will require between 430,000 and 480,000 new housing units be built annually across the country until 2035—an approximate doubling of the current pace of construction. The report says that if home building of both ownership and rental type properties continues at a 'business as usual' pace, Toronto will see an average of 44,000 housing starts annually. However, to reach prices seen in 2019, those housing starts will need to increase by nearly 70 per cent—or 31,511 units—to reach 75,565 annual starts. Of the approximate 32,000 units, the CMHC report says more than 26,000 should be additional ownership starts, nearly 4,000 should be primary market rentals, and more than 1,100 in the secondary rental market. The report adds that despite increased rental construction in recent years, the region is lacking homeownership options that match local incomes. CMHC says home prices in Toronto grew by 6.7 per cent between 2019 and 2024, while rental costs jumped 4.8 per cent in the same period. They add that home prices will continue to climb with increases as high as 62 per cent in 2035 if there is no action to increase supply. That change in price drops to nearly 20 per cent with additional supply. As for the rest of Ontario outside of Toronto and the Ottawa-Gatineau region, the report says over 86,000 additional housing starts are needed annually to reach a total of 124,795 new builds every year for the next 10 years.
