Toronto home prices soar (but they ‘won the lottery’ in Vancouver) from @GlobeandMail
“Begone, before the housing market kills you, too.”
Sales, prices surge
Toronto’s raging housing market has been doing business at a pace of more than $6-billion a month since May as sales rise and prices surge.
Having said that, Toronto has nothing on Vancouver, where “you basically won the lottery” if you own a detached home.
The Toronto and Vancouver housing markets are a source of concern among bubble-ologists, and the latest numbers show they’re still going strong.
According to the Toronto Real Estate Board today, sales in the area climbed 8 per cent in July from a year earlier, at 9,880.
Sales jumped across the board, with condos up sharply.
The board’s MLS home price index, which tracks the benchmark, surged 9.4 per cent, while average prices rose 10.6 per cent to $609,236.
The average price of a detached home in Toronto’s 416 region – that’s the area code – rose 13.3 per cent to $996,770. That’s actually down from June as prices on a month-to-month basis are seasonal.
Condo sales in the Greater Toronto Area led the way last month, climbing 14.4 per cent, though price gains trailed at 4.1 per cent.
“With the level of inventory in the GTA trending below two months, many listings continued to generate a lot of interest from buyers,” Jason Mercer, the group’s chief of market analysis, said in a statement.
“Not surprisingly, this supported further price increases well above the rate of inflation,” he added.
“Assuming similar interest rate and economic environments over the next five months, strong price growth will remain the norm for the rest of 2015.”
The total value of homes changing hands topped $6-billion, shy of the $7-billion or more pace of the last few months though well up from March.
There’s Toronto. And then there’s Vancouver, where The Globe and Mail’s Brent Jang reports a 30-per-cent surge in July sales from a year earlier.
The benchmark price for all types of properties in the Vancouver area now stands at $700,500, up 11.2 per cent from a year earlier.
Sellers in Vancouver now “rule with an iron fist,” noted BMO Nesbitt Burns senior economist Sal Guatieri.
“It’s a seller’s market in Toronto, too, but if you own a detached home in Vancouver you basically won the lottery.”
Full article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/torontos-condo-market-higher-and-pricier/article25846421/
