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.