Category
Market Updates
Date
April 8, 2016
February wasn’t just warm temperature-wise here in Toronto, we were also experiencing a hot real estate market. On March 15, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released their monthly home sales figures. Ryan and I keep a close eye on these figures, as they give us the pulse of the Canadian housing market, including in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The GTA, along with Vancouver, made the largest contribution to the monthly increase in sales activity across Canada, according to the CREA report.
In reference to the GTA and Vancouver, CREA President Pauline Aunger noted that “two of Canada’s hottest housing markets look set to stay that way heading into the spring home-buying season.”
The GTA also continued its year-over-year price climb, counting in at 11.3% growth since February last year.
These strong sales numbers come in amidst a backdrop of federal policies aimed to cool the so-called heated Toronto and Vancouver markets. Looks like at least initially, these changes have had little impact.
Also of note is that the national average price for a property sold in February was $503,000. If you remove the GTA and Vancouver from this equation, the average price drops to $355,000.
It wasn’t just a warm winter here in the GTA, but the housing market was hot too. And there is no sign that this will subside anytime soon, especially as we enter the spring real estate season.
Matt Elkind, CoFounder CONNECT asset management