Toronto home sales jump in April, prices continue climb

Toronto’s housing market continues to be red hot, bucking the trend in other parts of the country.

The country’s largest city had 10,350 transactions in April, an 18% jump from a year ago, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. Prices also continue to climb with the average transaction price reaching $517,556, an 8.5% jump from a year ago.

Toronto’s numbers come a day after Vancouver —the country’s most expensive market — showed it was suffering from sluggish sales. April sales in Vancouver area were down 12.3% from a year ago and 2.6% from March 2012. It was the worst April since 2001 but prices do continue to hold in British Columbia’s largest city with Vancouver’s benchmark price in April up 3.7% from a year ago to $683,800.

In Toronto, the single detached segment of the market appears to be the strongest with sales up 22% in April from a year earlier.

“Interest in single-detached homes has been very high, both in the City of Toronto and surrounding regions. Growth in single-detached listings has not kept up with demand, which means competition between buyers in this market segment increased. With this in mind, it was no surprise that the strongest annual price increase was also experienced in the single-detached segment,” said Richard Silver, TREB president.

The board noted with a larger supply in the condominium apartment segment, price increases were a more moderate 4%.

The board emphasized mortgage rates, still not far off the all-time low hit earlier this year, are driving the market.

“Monthly mortgage payments remain affordable for home buyers in the Greater Toronto Area. While interest rates are generally expected to increase over the next two years, the extent and timing of rate hikes has been thrown into question by slower than expected economic growth in the first quarter of this year. On net, borrowing costs are expected to remain a positive factor influencing home sales through 2012,” said Jason Mercer, senior manager of market analysis for the board.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/05/03/toronto-home-sales-jump-in-april-prices-continue-climb/

Posted via email from Markham Real Estate Today with Asif Khan