Photo by Quinn Dombrowski

GTA residential housing market is up for a good start in 2011. Although not being as good as the record numbers reported in January 2010, the residential resale housing market maintained a steady pace with 4,337 transactions taking place through the Toronto MLS system in January 2011.

The number of sales went down by 13 per cent on a year-over-year basis, while there were 9,008 new properties listed in January 2011, which represents a decline of 10 per cent over the previous year. Compared with the previous month, but without seasonal adjustments, new listings jumped by 110 per cent and sales held steady with less than a 1 per cent change.

Bill Johnston, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) commented on the results: "While off the record pace experienced a year ago, the GTA resale market has started the year on a solid footing. Home buyers in Toronto and surrounding areas continue to benefit from a diversity of housing types for sale at many different price points."

The average price of home sales reported in January 2011 was $427,037, which is a 4 per cent gain compared with the $409,058 reported in January 2010. The median price in January 2011 rose to $360,000 from the $350,000 January 2010 level. TREB's Senior Manager of Market Analysis Jason Mercer predicted a growth rate of three to five per cent for the average prices of 2011, which will, in his opinion, guarantee long term affordability.

Detached houses sales contributed to the single family residential market the most, with a 45.4 per cent share, followed by condominium apartments with a 26.8 per cent share. Semi detached houses accounted for 10.8 per cent of the market while condominium townhouse style housing made for 7.7 per cent of the market followed by row townhouse style housing with 7 per cent. The rest of the market consisted of link houses (1.7 per cent), Co-op apartments (0.4 per cent) and detached condos (0.1 per cent).