Home sales and prices rise in Toronto region for a second straight month

The number of home sales also rose 18.6 per cent year over year in July, while new listings declined 1.8 per cent.

“It appears that some people who initially moved to the sidelines due to the psychological impact of the (Ontario) Fair Housing Plan and changes to mortgage lending guidelines have re-entered the market,” said Jason Mercer, the board’s director of market analysis.

July was the fifth consecutive month-to-month rise in Toronto region housing prices: up 3.1 per cent from June, according to the real estate industry’s Multiple Listing Service Home Price Index.

Condominiums continued to outperform lowrise housing such as detached, semi-detached and town homes. Condo prices rose 8.9 per cent on average last month to $546,984. About three-quarters of the 2,002 condos sold last month were in the city of Toronto.

Of the 2,390 detached houses that sold in the region, three-quarters were outside the city. Regionwide, detached house prices rose only 0.5 per cent on average to $1 million, but the scarcity helped increase prices 3.6 per cent inside the city, while they remained flat in the surrounding 905 communities. A detached house in Toronto cost $1.35 million on average, compared to $907,347 in the surrounding regions.

The lift in resale home numbers so far this summer — June prices and sales both rose about 2 per cent above 2017 levels — appears to signal the stronger second half of this year that the real estate board and industry executives have been predicting.

The real estate industry’s MLS Home Price Index showed a slight 0.59 per cent decline in July, but the board’s release said, “The annual growth rate looks to be trending toward positive territory in the near future.”

Seasonally adjusted figures, nevertheless, also showed year-over-year growth of 3.1 per cent in prices and 6.6 per cent in the number of home transactions.