Toronto housing market sluggish, prices ‘sticky’: Report

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Both Toronto and Vancouver reported slower than usual housing market activity this spring as housing inventory continued to build in both cities.

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This according to Royal LePage’s second quarter 2024 Home Price Update and Market Forecast, released early Thursday.

The report says the GTA’s aggregate home price increased 0.9% year over year to $1,190,600 in the second quarter of 2024, and rose 1.1% from this year’s first quarter.

The report also said the median price of a single-family detached home in the GTA increased 1.3% year over year to $1,466,400 and the median price of a condominium increased 1.4% year over year to $741,500.

Royal LePage maintains the GTA year-end forecast will see prices increase by 10% in 2024’s fourth quarter over the same period last year

“Sales activity in the GTA was unseasonably low this spring,” said Karen Yolevski, chief operating officer, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., in a statement.

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“Almost all of the price appreciation we’ve seen year to date occurred in the first quarter, followed by a virtual flatline. New listings are up double digits compared to this time last year, and active listings are the highest they’ve been in more than a decade, While many buyers appear to be sitting on the sidelines, this will be good news for them when they resume their home buying plans.”

Royal LePage also said the aggregate price of a Canadian home increased 1.9% to $824,300 in the second quarter of 2024, from the same quarter in 2023.

And compared to 2024’s first quarter, the national aggregate home price increased 1.5% despite a slowdown in home sales in Canada’s most expensive markets.

“Canada’s housing market is struggling to find a consistent rhythm, as the last three months clearly demonstrated,” said Phil Soper, president and CEO, Royal LePage, said in a statement.

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“Nationally, home prices rose while the number of properties bought and sold sagged; an unusual dynamic. The silver lining: inventory levels in many regions have climbed materially. This is the closest we’ve been to a balanced market in several years. This trend dominates activity in two of the country’s largest and most expensive markets, the greater regions of Toronto and Vancouver, where sales are down yet prices remain sticky.”

Despite the Bank of Canada’s move to cut the overnight lending rate by 25 basis points on June, from 5.0 per cent to 4.75 per cent, buyers did not immediately rush back to the market as initially expected.

“This spring, with bank rate cuts highly anticipated, we saw some buyers race to get a deal done ahead of an expected spike in demand. Yet, when that first cut finally occurred in early June, market response was tepid,” said Soper in a statement.

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When broken out by housing type, Royal LePage says the national median price of a single-family detached home in Canada increased 2.2% year over year to $860,600, while the median price of a condominium increased 1.6% year over year to $596,500.

Since the first quarter of 2024, the national median price of a single-family detached home increased 1.8% in the second quarter, while the median price of a condominium increased 0.8%.

Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Canada will increase 9% in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared to the same quarter last year.

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