Toronto existing home sales fall by 23 per cent in June

The Toronto real estate market shows more signs of cooling off, with the second monthly drop in sales this year.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported today that 8,442 homes sold in June, representing a 23 per cent decrease over June of 2009. In May, sales fell by one per cent compared with the prior year.“The pace of home sales has moderated from record levels over the past two months with the prospect of higher mortgage rates,” said board president Bill Johnston. The average price for June transactions was $435,034 up eight per cent from June of 2009. However, that is below the double digit increases that have been recorded earlier this year.

“With more homes to choose from in the second quarter, many home buyers have been making less aggressive offers,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s senior manager of market analysis. “This has resulted in less upward pressure on the selling price.” Active listings were also up by 28 per cent in June, suggesting that there is much more product on the market for buyers.

There is also more new supply in the pipeline, with Toronto residential building permits up by 22 per cent in April over May according to figures released today by Statistics Canada. Non residential building permits, representing industrial, commercial and institutional building were down by 28 per cent.


Source: by Tony Wong, Business Reporter (Toronto Star)