Sales of existing homes were down 21 per cent in September compared to the same month last year throughout the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported today. The decline in sales volumes was broad based, spanning detached homes, townhouses and condo apartments in both the downtown core and the 905 area. As ScotiaBank analysts Derek Holt and Dov Zigler wrote in a note to clients this morning: “this is clearly not just a case of condo excess being weeded out.”
Sales of existing homes were down 21 per cent in September compared to the same month last year throughout the Greater Toronto Area, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported today. The decline in sales volumes was broad based, spanning detached homes, townhouses and condo apartments in both the downtown core and the 905 area. As ScotiaBank analysts Derek Holt and Dov Zigler wrote in a note to clients this morning: “this is clearly not just a case of condo excess being weeded out.”
Prices, however, were still up, compared to September 2011, for all types of residential dwellings across the GTA however, with the average resale transaction coming in 8.5 per cent higher than the same period last year. In the short term that’s only likely to contribute to building up the inventory of unsold homes.
The trend in Toronto mirrors that seen in B.C., where September releases revealed resale volumes were down a whopping 32.5 per cent in Vancouver and 8 per cent in Victoria. On the bright side, Calgary continues to show no signs of cooling, with sales of existing home rising 14.4 per cent last month in year over year terms. Smaller markets also continue to be resilient, which is contributing to soften the impact of dipping sales activity in some of Canada’s biggest cities, ScotiaBank noted.