Toronto Real Estate Sales from January to June 2015

The pace of real estate sales in Toronto has been brisk in the first half of the year. While we had more new listings coming on the market (5.1% more than in the same period last year), demand was strong, and more sales (by 9.6%) resulted in lower inventory.

Activity was present not only in the freehold segment of the market, but also in condo sales. Here, again, more new listings came up (by 7.7%), but the sales were also faster, with 13.8% more condo units sold than in the first half of 2014.

Average sale price for all property types in the City of Toronto (including detached and semi-detached houses, townhouses, condo apartments and condo townhouses) rose from $619,439 in January - June 2014 to $673,661. That is an 8.8% increase. But that large increase was in part caused by a larger proportion of high end residences sold in the first half of this year.

Comparing with the same period of 2014, Toronto had 35.3% more sales over 1 million, and 40.2% more sales over 2 million.

Time required to sell a listing dropped from 23 days last year to 21 days. Proportion of sold price to listing price was 101.6% (as compared to 100.7% last year). Semi-detached houses were selling, on average, at the highest ratio of sold to list price - 106.1%.

Price increase was highest for detached homes. Average sale price for all detached listings in the first half of the year was $1,051,912. That is a 14.2% increase from the lat year price of $921,005. Average price of a semi-detached house increased by 12.8%, from $675,616 to $761,819. Condo apartments were also selling higher, with the average price of $413,599 - a 7.0% increase from $391,113 last year.

52.3% of freehold listing sold above the asking price. 14.2% sold above 115% of list price. 11 houses sold for more than 150% of listing price, and the highest was 163% for a 2-storey detached house in the Annex, which was listed for $999,000 and sold in 6 days for $1,633,000.

Demand for homes and condos is still high, and new listings are not satisfying it. There are still many willing buyers who haven't found a house that meets their needs, and as long as the demand is higher than the supply we have to expect prices to rise.

I invite you to check out my yearly Toronto real estate sales report with a graph of Toronto real estate average prices since 1953. To allow a clear picture of the fluctuation of property values, these average prices have been corrected for inflation.

You may also find my First Half of 2015 in North Riverdale report and First Half of 2015 in South Riverdale of interest.