In March 2009, Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 6,171 sales – down seven per cent from March 2008, representing the smallest year-over-year decline in the last five months. The average price for March transactions was $362,052 – down less than five per cent from the same month last year
Toronto Real Estate Board Members reported 4,120 sales in February 2009
compared to 6,015 sales recorded in February 2008. The average home price was $361,305 last month compared to $382,048 during the same month last year.
Came across an interesting article posted in the Toronto Star. I’m not sure another rate cut is going to make any difference. Financial institutions have tightened up their lending belts and new rates aren’t going to make a difference if they aren’t willing to loan the money.
Original Article:
Bay Street: Bank set to chop rates
GDP [...]
TORONTO – Thursday, February 5, 2009 — TREB Members reported 2,670 sales in January from the 5,075 sales reported in the first month of 2008. Of these, 1,106 transactions took place in the City of Toronto compared to 2,128 in January 2008.
There were 2,577 sales in December 2008, compared to the 4,646 recorded during the same month in 2007, and the 4,447 recorded in December 2006. Sales for the whole of 2008 were 74,552, compared to the 93,193 recorded in 2007, and the 83,084 recorded during 2006.
The 2008 year-to-date sales for the GTA was recorded at 72,086 from last year’s 88,695. The year-to-date GTA average price was $379,489 from last year’s $375,445
The Greater Toronto Area year-to-date figures show 70,474 sales in 2008 from 84,994 recorded during the same period in 2007. The year-to-date average price was recorded at $380,470 in 2008 from $374,678 in 2007.
“Earlier this year the International Monetary Fund undertook a study of housing markets in 17 countries and found that Canada was one of only two nations in which house prices are supported by the economy,” said Ms. O’Neill. “There’s no doubt that real estate will continue to be a solid long-term investment in our country.”
“We’re going through a time of general economic malaise but it is not going to be prolonged and in the housing market we’re not going to see a reset because it wasn’t off in the first place,”
The media would like to have people believe that Toronto’s real estate market is in a post apocalyptic state. This is not so. There are Buyers and there are Sellers. Michael Manley, owner of Prudential Properties Plus in Toronto, has written an interesting article on the situation and current status of the market in downtown Toronto. Here it is.
TIM HEWETSON