Condo sales lead the way with 36% surge in sales: TREB

Susan Pigg – Toronto Star

House sales skyrocketed by 29% year over year across the GTA as of mid-September, with the highly watched condo sector leading the way, according to figures released by the Toronto Real Estate Board Tuesday.

Condo sales were up 36% across the GTA – 42.6% in the City of Toronto – with prices up 2.4% over mid-September of 2012, spurred on largely by recent increases in fixed-rate mortgages and buyers rushing to get into the market before 90- and 120-day mortgage pre-approvals expire.

Comment: Maybe. No one knows if this is because of mortgage pre-approvals expiring. My guess is no, as the rate increase is basically from 2.99% to 3.54% – pretty modest increase. So why were sales up in June? July? August? What, are we into the 15th week of pre-approval fears now?

Overall sales of everything from detached homes to townhomes and condos were up 29% as of mid-month, year over year. Prices increased 4% with the average residential home price across the GTA now some $514,560, according to TREB.

Comment: Mind you, I have no better explanation for why sales and prices are rising the way they are. I did figure that July would should positive numbers, because we get to compare months with the same mortgage rules. After 12 months of skewed stats with apples-to-oranges comparisons, I knew things would change. But this is more than that, 29% is getting a little out of hand.

“The strong growth in sales that we have seen over the past two-and-a-half months indicates that GTA households are approaching home ownership with a renewed sense of confidence,” said TREB president Dianne Usher in a statement.

“Prospective home buyers have taken a hard look at their household balance sheets over the past year and have found that, despite stricter lending guidelines, there are affordable property types from which to choose.”

The average sale price in the City of Toronto now stands at $531,388, down from $534,782 as of mid September of 2012.

Comment: Meh, that is but 0.6%, statistically equal.

That compares to $504,909 in the 905 regions, up from $473,031 at this time last year.

Detached homes across the GTA saw a 27.3% increase in sales and 5.2% climb in prices. Semi-detached home sales were up 29% as of mid September and prices down 2.7%, lead largely by an almost 5% decline in the City of Toronto.

Townhome sales climbed almost 30%, while prices were up 9.2% in mid September.

Comment: What is even crazier is that the 29% increase in sales came with a 2% drop in new listings. This really is getting out of hand…

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information – 416-388-1960

Laurin Jeffrey is a Toronto Realtor with Century 21 Regal Realty. He did not
write these articles, he just reproduces them here for people who are
interested in Toronto real estate. He does not work for any builders.
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