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rfmcdonaldThe Canadian Press' article "Toronto real estate hot as the weather in August" was carried by the Toronto Star.
Diana Petramala's "Toronto is the new Vancouver, but this housing market will also cool", published in The Globe and Mail, notes that the fundamentals are good for continued booming growth in Toronto.
A record number of homes were sold in the Greater Toronto Area last month as listings continued to dwindle, the city's real estate board said Wednesday.
The Toronto Real Estate Board said its members had 9,813 sales in August, a 23.5 per cent increase from the same month last year, though there were two more working days this year.
Still, even adjusting for an equal number of days, last month's sales volume in the Greater Toronto Area was up about 13 per cent from August 2015.
“The conditions underlying strong demand for . . . housing remained in place, including a relatively strong regional economy, growth in average earnings and low borrowing costs,” Larry Cerqua, president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we did not see any relief on the listings front, with the number of new listings down compared to last year. This situation continued to underpin very strong home price growth, irrespective of home type or area.”
The average price for homes sold, regardless of type of property, was $710,410, an increase of 17.7 per cent. Detached homes in the city of Toronto proper cost on average $1.2 million, up 18.3 per cent.
Diana Petramala's "Toronto is the new Vancouver, but this housing market will also cool", published in The Globe and Mail, notes that the fundamentals are good for continued booming growth in Toronto.
[T]the Toronto market has picked up steam. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, existing home sales hit a record in August and the average home price was up 18 per cent (roughly $100,000) from last year. Toronto’s appreciation in average home prices since early 2015 has now exceeded Vancouver’s.
On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada signalled a continued stable and extraordinarily low interest-rate path in the months ahead, so there is little to brake the Toronto market’s near-term momentum.
Economic fundamentals continue to favour robust home demand: Employment growth so far this year is running at about 3 per cent year-over-year, more than triple the national pace. And the population between 30 and 40 (those in the first-time buying stage) has been growing rapidly over the past two years, contributing to a large pool of pent-up housing demand.
We also can’t ignore the city’s attractiveness to foreign purchasers. A quest for yield around the world will remain supportive to real-estate investment.
Despite its rapid valuation growth, Toronto real estate continues to be relatively affordable when stacked up against Vancouver and other global cities. At roughly 3.5 to 5 per cent, cap rates on rental apartment investments in Toronto are more than a percentage point higher than those recorded in Vancouver. The additional land-transfer tax on non-residents in Vancouver will also likely prompt more foreign buyers with an interest in Canada to set their sights toward Toronto.
