3 August 2018

“Such numbers are definitely encouraging,” – noted TREB president Garry Bhaura.

Strong market activity in Toronto goes in contrast to Metro Vancouver performance, where home sales fell to the lowest level in 18 years.

According to the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board, there were only 2,070 properties sold in July, marking a 30% drop from a year ago.

The drastic difference appears as the B.C. government pushed forward with more measures aimed at cooling the market, while Ontario took a pause.

Scotiabank Economics vice-president Derek Holt says Toronto’s real estate market is stabilizing after a hit it faced in January, when the federal government tightened the mortgage rules.

“It coincides with our forecasts that the second half of 2018 will show stronger market activity, having adjusted to the stricter rules”, – he noted.

TREB report shows there were 13,868 new listings last month, including 4,511 in Toronto alone. However, the overall GTA number fell by 1.8% annually.

The city saw 2,574 sales with an average cost of $824,336. Meanwhile, the rest of the GTA reported 4,387 sales at an average price of $757,365.

The most expensive housing type were detached houses of Toronto. Their cost reached $1.35 million. In case of the rest of the area, the number was $907,347.

Although the MLS home price index went down a little bit from a year ago, the annual increase seems to move towards higher results in the nearest future, TREB says.