TORONTO – The sales slump in the Greater Toronto Area deepened last month with half the number of transactions compared with a year earlier and new listings dropping to a level not seen in more than a decade, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says.
The continued cooling of the once-scorching market was evident in October sales, which dropped by 49.1 per cent year over year to 4,961, and was little changed from September.
The board attributed much of the sales decline to a lack of inventory, which brokers have said is combining with higher interest rates and inflation to keep buyers out of the market.
Sellers are holding off listing properties because they fear they won’t make as much as they would have 10 or 12 months ago when the market was moving at a torrid pace.
New listings were down 11.6 per cent year over year to 11,749 — a level not seen since October 2010.
“With new listings at or near historic lows, a moderate uptick in demand from current levels would result in a noticeable tightening in the resale housing market in short order,” said board president Kevin Crigger in a press release Thursday.
With fewer homes to choose from and sellers holding off on listing properties, the composite benchmark was down by 1.3 per cent year over year to $1,098,200.
The average selling price was $1,089,428, a 5.7-per-cent fall from a year earlier, but an increase of 0.2 per cent from September.
Average prices fell the most in the detached category, where they dropped 11 per cent year over year to $1,372,438. Semi-detached properties declined by 6.2 per cent to $1,079,393 and townhouses decreased 3.9 per cent to $919,903.
However, condos were an outlier, rising 1.8 per cent since the same time last year to $716,515.
Overall, the board found the composite benchmark and average selling price have “flattened” in recent months after steeper drops in the spring and early summer.
“Home prices in the GTA have found support in recent months because price declines in the spring and summer mitigated the impact of higher borrowing costs on average monthly mortgage payments,” the board’s chief market analyst Jason Mercer said in the release.
“The Bank of Canada’s most recent messaging suggests that they are reaching the end of their tightening cycle. Bond yields dipped as a result, suggesting that fixed mortgage rates may trend lower moving forward, which would help affordability.”
Crigger’s remarks came a day after the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported the composite benchmark price for Metro Vancouver sat at $1,148,900 last month, up 2.1 per cent from October 2021, but down 0.6 per cent from September and 9.2 per cent over the last six months.
The market’s home sales continued to plunge in October, falling 45.5 per cent from the year before even as they increased 12.8 per cent from September.
Last month, sales totalled 1,903 and were 33.3 per cent below the 10-year October sales average.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.
