TORONTO -- The real estate market in the Greater Toronto Area just had its biggest September ever amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's called kind of crazy COVID times," said Heather Johnson, who is in the midst of selling her home in Etobicoke and has had a high number of showings. "I did expect it to be crazy, but I didn't expect it to be this crazy. There's a lot of inventory out there right now."
According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, September 2020 sales were up 42.3 per cent. The average price of all homes is $960,772. Up 14 per cent from the same time last year.
TRREB President Lisa Patel says the rise is likely due to pent-up demand from the lockdown last spring. The focus of that demand is on detached homes and the potential that the pandemic is inspiring some people to leave downtown.
"With regards to that pent-up demand, we're also seeing a little bit more interest in the 905 markets," Patel said.
Greg Bonnell from BNN Bloomberg says that the real estate is surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
"Other parts of the economy [are] clearly still struggling, [but] real estate has just ripped road back to ... better than it was before," he said.
The interest in detached homes and the 905 area may be having an effect on the rental market in Toronto.
"If you look at the condo market in downtown Toronto there's some interesting things starting to happen there because supply is coming online," Bonnell said.
According to Urbanation, an organization that tracks real estate in the city, the number of rental listings are up 147 per cent from 2020. The average rental price, has dropper 10.9 per cent overall and 14 per cent in Toronto.
Urbanation says the decline in rent price is the largest since they began collecting data in 2010.
