Toronto’s home buyers show some signs of life in historically bad real estate market
Credit: Jochem Ratt/UNSPLASH
Toronto’s real estate market showed some signs of life in June, with both sales and prices up last month as demand rebounds from extremely sluggish levels.
The number of real estate transactions rose 4.2 per cent in June, ending a four-month slide in sales, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Toronto Real Estate Board on Thursday. Benchmark home prices were up 0.4 per cent during the month. The average price of a home sold last month in the Greater Toronto Area was $1.16 million.
It appears some new buyers are emerging as the outlook for interest rates improves. The Bank of Canada lowered its policy rate last month for the first time in four years, and indicated more cuts are coming.
But the market remains very weak by historical standards. Sales in June – despite the monthly uptick – were down 16 per cent from the same month a year ago. Benchmark prices are down 5 per cent from June 2023.
Realtors recorded 36,586 transactions in the first six months of this year, down more than 5 per cent from the first half of last year. And 2023 was a historically bad year, when transactions fell to the lowest in more than two decades.
The market is also seeing an influx of new listings that is likely to weigh on prices going forward. Canada’s largest city last month had 23,613 active real estate listings, up 67 per cent from June 2023.
