Toronto's real estate market is rebounding fast as pandemic restrictions lift

Home sales are surging in Toronto once again this summer after a brief yet steep drop due to COVID-19, and prices are following suit despite holding steady (if not increasing in most parts of the city) amid the pandemic.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB)'s latest Market Watch Report, released on Tuesday, indicates that GTA realtors made 8,701 residential sales in June of 2020 — a whopping 89 per cent jump from the previous month's figures.

"This result represented a very substantial increase over the May 2020 sales result, both on an actual (+89 per cent) and seasonally adjusted basis (+84 per cent), and was only down by 1.4 per cent compared to June 2019," the report reads.

Considering that sales were down 53.7 per cent year over year in May, and 69 per cent in April, that's not a bad data point at all.

Some GTA market segments and regions even saw growth in June, most notably detached homes and townhouses in parts of the GTA "surrounding the City of Toronto."

Detached and townhouse sales were up 10.4 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively in the 905, according to TRREB. Home prices were up across the board for all market segments and parts of the GTA.

"The average selling price for all home types combined was $930,869 – up by 11.9 per cent compared to June 2019," reads the report. "The actual and seasonally-adjusted average selling price was also up substantially compared to May 2020, by 7.8 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively."

New listings are up slightly, year over year, by 2.1 per cent, but TRREB reports that "active listings" are down by about 28.8 per cent.

"It will be important to closely monitor housing market conditions as economic recovery continues in the second half of 2020 and into 2021," said TRREB CEO John DiMichele.

"The persistent lack of listing inventory in the GTA understandably took a back seat to COVID-related issues in the short term, but supply should once again be top-of-mind once the recovery takes hold, in order to ensure long-term affordability in the GTA."

Hey, at least rent prices are down.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO