Its finally summer and at the halfway point of 2019! The year started off slow for Toronto Real Estate with lots of snow and cold weather, of course it did not put many buyers in the mood to head out and look for homes and sellers waited out the weather to list their homes later in the year. This caused for a fairly flat first quarter.
Second quarter has been a different story all together. We have seen activity pick up, with increases of total units sold in April by 16.8%, May 18.9% and June 10.4% all compared to April, May & June 2018. Looking at the most recent June numbers Toronto had 8860 units sell last month compared to 8024 from June 2018. The average home price for all types increased from $808,066 last year June to $832,703 this year.
When looking at types of homes individually we see that the trend we have seen the last 3 months of Condos slowing down and Freeholds becoming more of an attractive buy continue, especially in Toronto. Specifically detached homes have made a huge rebound and the sale of units have increased by 18.6% over last year June but the average price for a detached is still down 1.4% from last year. I suspect we should see that number go into the positive over the next few months if this trend of buyers targeting detached homes continues. The main reason for Freeholds increasing and condos slowing is because pre-sale condos, especially in Toronto have hit a all time high averaging between 900 – 1100 a square foot depending on the building and area and new construction ranges from 950 – 1300. So, when a 2 bedroom 800 sq foot condo sells for $800,000 some buyers see the value of buying a 3 bedroom 2 bath 800sq foot semi at Main and Danforth or Corso Italia near the subway for roughly the same price. This has caused condo prices to start to even out in Toronto with a 5% increase in June in comparison to the 11% + increases we saw late last year. Looking at condos outside the GTA the average PSF is much lower so they are still attractive to some buyers, especially the areas new transit will be added.
Overall inventory is still very tight especially in Toronto, homes are moving, active listings are down 5.7% from last year. We should see more of the same going into end of July and August as historically August is a month where many buyers go on vacation and don’t look for homes as actively, the market picks up again for early September.
Victoria Village Report
Currently there are 8 active listings for sale in the Victoria Village Neighbourhood. They average out to 37 days on the market. This speaks to how different the market is from Toronto’s core neighbourhoods where homes sell within 14 days on average. Part of the reason is that 4 out of the 8 are on busy streets. Others because of high expectations. A listing on Knighton was bought back in 2016 at the height of the market in a bidding war for 1,060,000 and 3 years later it’s been sitting at 1,028,000 for 42 days.
There have been 21 total freehold sales and 21 Condos & Condo Townhome sales so far in 2019 for Victoria Village. Same time last year we had 27 freehold sales and 40 condo & condo townhome sales, thats a 38% decrease in listings. I imagine part of the reason is all the construction around the neighbourhood and many sellers deciding to wait out the new LRT before listing in the next 18 – 24 months when its completed.
The average sale price of the Condos in 2019 was $429,180, the average for a Freehold was $996,509 and the average for a detached (14 sold in 2019) was $1,111,264. Overall inventory is tighter, similar to the rest of Toronto but homes here do take longer to sell.
As always any questions or concerns feel free to reach out to me via email gus@buytoronto.net or direct at 416 219 5626. Hope everyone has a great Summer!