House prices in GTA still rising even though sales are cooling down: TRREB

House prices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are higher than they were this time last year, even though sales are cooling down, according to a new report.

Average selling and benchmark prices have both gone up, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). The average price for a home has risen by 3.5 per cent since October 2022 to $1,125,928 this October, while the benchmark price has increased by 1.4 percent to about $1,103,600.

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“Competition between buyers remained strong enough to keep the average selling price above last year’s level in October and above the cyclical lows experienced in the first quarter of this year. The Bank of Canada also noted this resilience in its October statement,” Jason Mercer, TRREB’s chief market analyst, said in a release.

“However, home prices remain well-below their record peak reached at the beginning of 2022, so lower home prices have mitigated the impact of higher borrowing costs to a certain degree.”

In Toronto, the average price has decreased by roughly $49,160 from October 2022, with homes currently on the market at around $1.1 million.

Detached and semi-detached homes, as well as townhouses, have all seen price increases in Toronto and the rest of the GTA from last October, going up by 6.1 per cent to $1,450,112, 2.1 per cent to $1,102,721, and 1.1 per cent to $930,185, respectively. The only exception is condos, which have decreased by 1.2 per cent to an average of $708,780 in the region.

Compared to September’s report, TRREB noted, on a seasonally adjusted basis, benchmark prices edged lower, though average selling prices remained nearly the same, hovering at roughly $1.1 million.

Home sales are still dwindling, TRREB noted in its report, down by 5.8 per cent from 4,930 to 4,646 from last October as well as on a month-over-month seasonally adjusted basis.

“Record population growth and a relatively resilient GTA economy have kept the overall demand for housing strong. However, more of that demand has been pointed at the rental market, as high borrowing costs and uncertainty on the direction of interest rates has seen many would-be home buyers remain on the sidelines in the short term,” TRREB President Paul Baron said in a release.

“When mortgage rates start trending lower, home sales will pick up quickly.”

These are how much average home prices are going for across the Greater Toronto Area this October, across all home types per region:

• Halton Region: $1,199,254
• Peel Region: $1,080,216
• City of Toronto: $1,127,635
• York Region: $1,293,179
• Durham Region: $931,548
• Dufferin County: $816,291
• Simcoe County: $974,831