GTA Housing Market in July

By Elli Davis, August 14, 2012

Toronto House by Steve Browne & John Verkleir

Weather-wise, July is among the hottest months of the year. With regard to housing in Toronto, last month was not so hot, though — quite the contrary. The city was actually the main contributor to the year-to-year decline of home sales in the Greater Toronto Area.

As Greater Toronto Realtors® reported, 7,570 homes were sold in the GTA this past month. Compared to July 2011 and its 7,683 sales, it is a decline of 1.5 per cent. The sales of condominiums in the City of Toronto saw a truly great decline, but overall sales in the rest of the GTA have not changed much over the year. The average selling price has, on the other hand, changed from July of last year. It went up from by 4 per cent, from $458,646 to $476,947. Similarly, both new and active listings were up this past month. The former increased by 11.9 per cent to 13,888 and the latter grew by 16 per cent to 20,318.

Overall, the housing situation in the GTA is not tragic. The City of Toronto did not do too well last month, but just like in June, the land transfer tax is a likely cause of the recorded unfavourable numbers. It will be interesting to see whether the situation will change and people will accept the tax as it is and start purchasing more in Toronto and less outside the city.

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