Toronto’s housing market posted its biggest monthly sales decline since March while prices remained little changed.
Sales in Canada’s biggest city fell 3.4 percent in November to 6,588 units from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported Wednesday. That’s the biggest monthly drop in eight months. The benchmark price, which adjusts for the types of houses sold, fell 0.4 percent from last month to C$763,600 ($575,200).
The housing market in the Toronto region has been stabilizing after a slowdown in sales and prices earlier this year amid tougher mortgage-lending rules. The market picked up pace through the summer, though sales have declined for the third month in a row now.
The drop in sales could in part be attributed to a decline in new listings, which fell 26 percent to 10,534 from last November.
“New listings were actually down more than sales on a year-over-year basis in November,” Garry Bhaura, the president of the board, said in a statement. “This suggests that, in many neighborhoods, competition between buyers may have increased. Relatively tight market conditions over the past few months have provided the foundation for renewed price growth.”
Average home prices rose 3.5 percent to C$788,345 from last year, though sales were down 15 percent over the same period.
The semi-detached housing segment was the strongest performing sector with average prices rising 8.3 percent to C$791,760 on the year. Condo prices jumped 7.5 percent to C$556,723.
Given the impact of new mortgage stress tests and higher borrowing costs, it makes sense that condos and the semi-detached market experienced relatively stronger rates of price growth in November, Jason Mercer, the board’s director of market analysis, said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Wong in Toronto at nwong133@bloomberg.net;Erik Hertzberg in Ottawa at eschmitzhert@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jacqueline Thorpe at jthorpe23@bloomberg.net, ;Debarati Roy at droy5@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada
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