Toronto’s Cheapest Neighbourhoods To Buy A Home Are All In The City’s East End

Buying a house can be overwhelming, especially in Canada’s largest city. But, depending on the area, it can actually be pretty attainable.

If you’re looking for affordable housing in Toronto, the top five neighbourhoods with the cheapest average price in 2019 are the east-end areas of Rouge, Malvern, Bendale, Woburn, and Morningside, according to Moneysense.

 

$722,209

IS THE AVERAGE AREA PRICE IN 2019 FOR THE ROUGE NEIGHBOURHOOD, THE CHEAPEST IN TORONTO

Looking at the whole study, 2019 average prices ranged from $722,209 in Rouge to $3,008,096 in Rosedale-Moore Park.

Just a few months ago, Toronto house prices actually jumped by more than what many residents make in a year.

The MoneySense study assessed a range of factors to find the 6ix’s best neighbourhoods for buying real estate. And if you don’t fancy the downtown life, try Guelph!

 

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Canadian Cities Slow New Home Building, But Toronto Starts Rip Over 40% Higher

Canadian cities are starting fewer new home building projects during the pandemic. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data shows urban housing starts fell in Q2 2020. Despite a general slowdown, Toronto continued to push to a multi-year high for new projects started.

Canadian Urban Housing Starts Fall
Canada’s urban housing starts fell, as housing activity slowed across the country. There were 177,825 housing starts seasonally adjusted at annual rates (SAAR) in Q2 2020, down 8.0% from the previous quarter. This is a 14.2% decrease compared to the same quarter a year before. The drop is likely due to the pandemic, but that didn’t slow down all markets.

Canadian Urban Real Estate Starts
The number of housing starts in Canadian cities with over 10,000, seasonally adjusted at annual rates.

Toronto Housing Starts Jump To Highest Level Since 2018
Greater Toronto building starts bucked the trend, actually soaring to a multi-year high. Starts hit 44,210 SAAR in Q2 2020, up a massive 46.9% from the previous quarter. This is also a massive 40.9% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Toronto is now at the highest level of starts since Q4 2018. Despite the pandemic, developers have been busy building.

Toronto Real Estate Starts
The number of housing starts in Toronto, seasonally adjusted at annual rates.

Vancouver Housing Starts Fall Over 46%
Greater Vancouver housing starts are down significantly, despite a bump in activity. Starts hit 21,375 SAAR in Q2 2020, up 14.7% from the previous quarter. The bump did little compared to last year though, with starts down 46.1% from last year. A small increase from the previous quarter, but new starts are still falling sharply.

Vancouver Real Estate Starts
The number of housing starts in Vancouver, seasonally adjusted at annual rates.

Montreal Housing Starts Fall Over 26%
Greater Montreal housing starts also made a significant decline in the last quarter. Starts reached 22,481 SAAR in Q2 2020, down 17.27% from the previous quarter. This resulted in a 26.89% decline compared to the same quarter last year. Building activity is still relatively high to historic standards, but has been slowing faster than the national average.

Montreal Real Estate Starts
The number of housing starts in Montreal, seasonally adjusted at annual rates.

Canadian housing starts in cities are generally slowing down, with a few exceptions. Some cities can chalk this up to the pandemic, which halted the economy. However, slow pre-sales and project cancellations in cities like Vancouver, are also playing a significant role.

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Toronto real estate market comes roaring back as prices up as much as 22 per cent

Any chance of a drop in real estate prices associated with the COVID-19 pandemic already seems a thing of the past as the Toronto market came roaring back last month, according to the June sales figures provided by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.

Sales are up an incredible 89 per cent, and not just compared to last month. Sales are also up 84 per cent from a year ago in May 2019 after a serious slowdown during the height of the pandemic in March and April.

The MLS® Home Price Index Composite Benchmark is also up by 8.2 per cent year-over-year in June. But there was even more significant price growth in certain sectors of the Toronto market.

For instance, there was strong growth in the detached and semi-detached segments of the market in the city of Toronto at 14.3 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

The average selling price across the Greater Toronto Area real estate market in June is $930,869 — up by 11.9 per cent compared to June 2019.

“Following the broader movement to reopen the economy in June, we experienced a very positive result in terms of home sales and selling prices. Before the onset of COVID-19, there was a great deal of pent-up demand in the market. This pent-up demand arguably increased further over the past three months. We are still in the early days of recovery, but barring any setbacks, we should continue to see stronger market conditions in the second half of 2020 as households look to satisfy their ownership housing needs,” said Lisa Patel, TRREB president.

New listings were up 2.1 per cent when compared to last year. However, active listings on TRREB’s MLS® System at the end of June 2020 were down by 28.8 per cent compared to June 2019.

On the ground, realtor Jamie Dempster says the Toronto real estate market is “on fire.” Recently, he had one west-end home sell after seeing 25 offers, and another 30 offers on a home along the Danforth in the east end of the city.

“The low interest rates coupled with the fear of missing out on home ownership in Toronto has the market hitting heights we haven’t seen since 2017,” he says. “Anything priced between $800,000 and $2,000,000 is seeing multiple offers. Once you move over the $2,000,000, it’s neighbourhood specific and slightly softer.”

According to Dempster, one factor impacting the market is older Toronto homeowners who had planned on moving into retirement residences this year are holding off that decision in light of recent events.

“This is a big part of the housing stock that we usually see come to market,” Dempster says. “Without this housing stock, the market is even tighter and the buyers outnumber new listings 10-1.”

 

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Toronto home prices rise nearly 12% in June, sales storm back

Toronto homebuyers appeared unfazed by the tumultuous spring and returned to the market in droves in June.

There were 8,701 home sales in the Toronto region last month, according to data released today by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). That’s up 89 percent from May’s total and down only 1.4 percent over June 2019. Detached home and townhome sales outside the City of Toronto took on an outsized role in leading the sales recovery, TRREB said.

Meanwhile, home prices posted their strongest showing since the onset of the pandemic, with the average resale price up 11.9 percent over the same period last year to $930,869. June’s average resale price also rose 7.8 percent compared to May 2020.

TRREB President Lisa Patel said June’s positive numbers were a result of the region’s economy gradually reopening and pent up demand that was unleashed following more than two months of significantly diminished market activity.

“Before the onset of COVID-19, there was a great deal of pent-up demand in the market. This pent-up demand arguably increased further over the past three months,” said TRREB President Lisa Patel.

“We are still in the early days of recovery, but barring any setbacks, we should continue to see stronger market conditions in the second half of 2020 as households look to satisfy their ownership housing needs,” she added.

As market activity in the Toronto region plummeted through the second half of March and into May, both buyers and sellers appeared to uniformly step to the sidelines. Sales and new listings fell by similar degrees through the spring, allowing prices to remain relatively stable as a significant mismatch between supply and demand did not arise.

But as sales ramp back up, a lack of active listings may push prices higher, negatively impacting housing affordability in a market that many already find prohibitively expensive. In June, new listings rose by 2.1 percent over the previous year but active listings were down by nearly 30 percent compared to June 2019.

“It will be important to closely monitor housing market conditions as economic recovery continues in the second half of 2020 and into 2021,” said TRREB CEO John DiMichele.

“The persistent lack of listing inventory in the GTA understandably took a back seat to COVID-related issues in the short term, but supply should once again be top-of-mind once the recovery takes hold, in order to ensure long-term affordability in the GTA,” he continued.

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