GTA home prices dropped for fourth consecutive month in June
June sales of Toronto homes fell by just over 41 per cent compared with the same month last year as higher borrowing costs weighed on the market, the region's real estate board said Wednesday.
About 6,474 homes changed hands last month, down from 11,053 during the prior June, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said. June sales were also down compared to May.
- Download our app to get local alerts to your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
While the board attributed some of the decrease between May and June to seasonal trends, it said the figure and year-over-year sales suggest the current, cooler market conditions will persist.
“Home sales have been impacted by both the affordability challenge presented by mortgage rate hikes and the psychological effect wherein homebuyers who can afford higher borrowing costs have put their decision on hold to see where home prices end up,” Kevin Crigger, the board's president, said in a release.
“Expect current market conditions to remain in place during the slower summer months.”
Crigger's prediction comes as several of the country's biggest housing markets - Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary - have eased in recent months.
Realtors and economists attribute the phenomenon to rising interest and mortgage rates as well as inflation, which recently hit 7.7 per cent, the highest it's been in almost 40 years. The Bank of Canada has teased further hikes could be on their way.
Those conditions mean less purchasing power for prospective buyers, but the market is still shifting in their favour because homes are sitting for sale longer and often not garnering the frantic bidding wars they would have months ago.
READ MORE: What $1 million gets you in real estate markets across Ontario
Though homes sold for less on average in June than those that changed hands in May, prices were still up from last year.
The average home price in the region stretched to $1,146,254 last month, a roughly five per cent increase from June 2021. June's average was an almost six per cent drop from May 2022.
The year-over-year increases in prices were seen across every category of housing and stretched to areas surrounding Toronto.
Average prices in the 416 - a nickname for the City of Toronto that excludes its suburbs - reached $1,737,012 for detached homes, $1,027,050 for townhouses and $771,267 for condos.
In suburban regions of the GTA, known as the 905, the average price was more than $1,361,862 for a detached home, $906,311 for a townhouse and $692,598 for a condo.
As prices crept up from June 2021, real estate agents have noticed many have held off listing their properties, preferring to wait for the market to turn again.
The number of properties listed during June was almost unchanged from last year, the board found.
New listings rose by one per cent to 16,347 last month from June 2021. They also dropped 12 per cent from May 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
10 years in U.S. prison for Canadian man who stole millions with fake psychic fraud
A former Montreal resident has been sentenced to 10 years in a United States federal prison for a multi-decade fraud that manipulated more than one million Americans into sending money to fake psychics.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.