The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) recorded 11,303 sales for existing homes in the GTA for April, a record high for the month. The tally was also a 17 per cent increase over sales from same time in 2014.
Meanwhile, new listings were up by 5 per cent in April.
“Demand for ownership housing was very high relative to the number of homes available for sale in April. This situation is not expected to change markedly as we move through the remainder of 2015. Until we experience a sustained period in which listings grow at a faster pace than sales, annual rates of home price growth will remain strong,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.
Prices continued to climb upward amid the flurry of sales activity. The average price for an existing home sold in GTA was $635,932, a 10 per cent increase over April 2014. The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) composite benchmark, which estimates the price of a benchmark home with the same attributes, was up by 8.4 per cent year-over-year. This suggests that a greater share of higher-end homes were sold in April 2015 compared to the same time in 2014.
The sale price for detached properties remained steep with TREB reporting the sales average in the 905 as $729,961, up 13.1 per cent from last year. In the City of Toronto, the April average was $1,056,114, up 9.2 per cent from 2014.
Despite the double-digit price increases for detached properties, condos and townhomes saw the highest increases in sales compared to last year. The 451 townhouse sales in Toronto-proper represented a 28.9 per cent sale surge over last year. Condos in the 905 saw sales swell to 745, up 21.5 per cent over last year.
