Here's where house prices are rising the fastest in Toronto right now

A limited supply of houses for sale, paired with rising demand as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lift, have caused real estate prices in Toronto to skyrocket over the past few months — and nowhere has this been observed more acutely than on the detached housing market.

RE/MAX's freshly-released 2020 Hot Pocket Communities Report shows that single-family detached homes appreciated in value in 95 per cent of Greater Toronto real estate districts over the past half year — 55 per cent of them by double-digit values.

After examining trends and developments across all 65 Toronto Regional Real Estate Board districts, analysts for the company found that "a steep decline in the number of homes listed for sale during Ontario's State of Emergency contributed to a notable uptick in single-detached housing values."

Roughly 14,000 active listings were on the market as of June, according to RE/MAX, representing the lowest level for the early summer month since June of 2016.

"Strong demand characterized much of the first quarter of 2020, setting the stage for a record-breaking spring market in the Greater Toronto Area — and then came COVID-19," said RE/MAX EVP Christopher Alexander on Monday.

"In past downturns, a drop in unit sales has usually been followed by a significant upswing in the number of homes listed for sale. That didn't happen in this case as buyers and sellers paused in April, then cautiously resumed home-buying activity as COVID-19 cases dropped and local economies re-opened."

RE/MAX (and other agencies) expect that home prices will only continue to rise in the third quarter as more emergency orders are lifted.

"With the easing of restrictions and the province moving into the third, and perhaps final phase, we anticipate that the housing market will likely accelerate," said Alexander.

While realtors have recorded significant price hikes amid dwindling sales across all types of homes in Toronto, detached homes are where prices are rising the most quickly, particularly in the downtown core.

Here are the GTA neighbourhoods with the highest five percentage increases in the average price of a detached home over the first half of 2020:

1. Yonge-St. Clair, Annex, Casa Loma and Wychwood (C02) with an increase of 25.7% to reach a new average of $2,918,968.
    
2. Swansea, Roncesvalles, South Parkdale and High Park (W01) and Oakridge, Birchcliffe-Cliffside (E06) tied for second place with identical increase rates of 18.4 per cent and average home values of  $2,050,596 and $1,095,287 respectively.
    
3. Oakwood-Vaughan, Humewood, Cedarvale, Forest Hill South (C03) home prices appreciated by 17.7 per cent to reach a new average of $2,371,546.
    
4. GTA real estate district W08, which includes Kingsway South, Etobicoke West Mall and Edenbridge-Humber Valley, saw a 17 per cent increase in average detached home prices with an average value of $1,693,382.
    
5.  Alderwood, Long Branch, New Toronto and Mimico (W06) came in fifth with the average detached home rising 16.2 per cent over the first half of 2020 to reach $1,202,176.

Here's a full break down of all districts and their respective price changes in the 416, specifically, via RE/MAX:

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO