Toronto by Paulo Otavio Diniz Rodrigues
Second month of the year and already the first record number of sales! The difference between this year and 2015 is quite striking - an increase by 21.1 per cent is significant even in the terms of steadily rising statistics that we’ve been witnessing for the whole last year. This interannual jump from last year’s 6,294 recorded sales to this year’s 7,621 might be a clear prediction of the development of Toronto real estate market for this year.
The trend of increasing number of sales is again accompanied by the rising average prices. The increase is not as significant as in sales, but 14.9 per cent is definitely not a small figure and the average price has by far crossed the $600,000 line - in 2015 it was $596,320 and this year it was $685,278.
“Even after accounting for the leap year day, sales were above the previous record for February set back in 2010. Sales were up strongly from the 15th day of the month onward as well, despite the new federal mortgage lending guidelines coming into effect that require at least a 10 per cent down payment on the portion of purchase prices between $500,000 and $1,000,000,” said Mark McLean, President of TREB.
Despite the more difficult process of getting a mortgage when buying house for the first time, the sales and average prices are about to continue rising. According to Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis, “GTA households will remain upbeat about purchasing a home in 2016. Early sales results for January and February certainly support this view.”
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