{"id":92364,"date":"2017-03-04T00:32:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T05:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=92364"},"modified":"2017-03-04T00:32:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T05:32:19","slug":"price-of-homes-sold-in-greater-toronto-area-soars-27-7-real-state-board-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/04\/price-of-homes-sold-in-greater-toronto-area-soars-27-7-real-state-board-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Price of homes sold in Greater Toronto Area soars 27.7%, real state board says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Limited<\/a>
Limited supply drove housing prices higher in the Greater Toronto Area last month, with detached homes in the city breaking through the $1.5 million mark for the first time, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. (Photo: Ken Lund\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO\u2014Limited supply drove housing prices higher in the Greater Toronto Area last month, with detached homes in the city breaking through the $1.5 million mark for the first time, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.<\/p>\n

The average price of homes sold in the GTA last month soared 27.7 per cent compared with a year ago, while the number of properties sold rose 5.7 per cent, TREB said Friday.<\/p>\n

The increase in sales came in spite of the fact that last year was a leap year and benefited from an extra day of activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe listing supply crunch we are experiencing in the GTA has undoubtedly led to the double-digit home price increases we are now experiencing on a sustained basis, both in the low-rise and high-rise market segments,\u201d Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we see a marked increase in the number of homes available for sale, expect very strong annual rates of price growth to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shawn Zigelstein, a sales representative with Royal LePage Your Community Realty, said he expects the trend to continue in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been crazy out there,\u201d said Zigelstein. \u201cThere doesn’t seem to be a slowdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attributes the price growth to a combination of limited inventory, strong immigration into the city and low interest rates, making borrowing money attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get an influx of inventory, I think we’ll start to see a little bit of a slowdown in pricing, potentially,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The average selling price in the GTA hit $875,983 in February, while in the City of Toronto it was $859,186, an increase of 19.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

The average price of a detached home in the City of Toronto hit $1,573,622, an increase of 29.8 per cent compared to a year ago.<\/p>\n

The MLS home price composite benchmark price for all communities measured by TREB was $727,300, up 23.8 per cent.<\/p>\n

Concerns have mounted that home prices in Canada’s largest city have spiralled to the point where policy-makers need to intervene, as they have in Vancouver, where a number of measures have been implemented including a tax on foreign buyers. The Ontario government has resisted such a move.<\/p>\n

TREB president Larry Cerqua said governments at all three levels need to address the lack of homes available, not foreigners buying properties as investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should consider revisiting land-use designations in built-up areas to allow for a greater diversity of home types, streamlining development approvals and permitting processes, and looking at ways to incentivize landowners to develop their land,\u201d Cerqua said in TREB’s statement.<\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor John Tory said he’s \u201cvery concerned\u201d about soaring home prices and that the best thing the city can do is keep a close eye on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are part of a working group with the federal government and the provincial government to monitor this very closely … to try to make sure we understand what the root causes are of prices increasing,\u201d Tory said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver released figures showing a 41.9 per cent plunge in homes sold last month year-over-year.<\/p>\n

The MLS home price composite benchmark price for Metro Vancouver was $906,700, 14 per cent higher than what it was a year ago, but down 2.8 per cent from six months ago, after the tax on foreign buyers took effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014Limited supply drove housing prices higher in the Greater Toronto Area last month, with detached homes in the city breaking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":92365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15090],"class_list":["post-92364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-greater-toronto-area","mauthors-alexandra-posadzki","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}