TORONTO, ONTARIO, May 6, 2019 – Toronto Real Estate Board President Garry Bhaura announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported a substantial year-over-year increase in home sales in April 2019. The number of residential transactions jumped by 16.8 per cent to 9,042 compared to 7,744 in April 2018. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis, sales were up 11.3 per cent compared to March 2019. New listings were also up year-over-year by eight per cent. However, the annual growth rate for new listings was much lower than that reported for sales. This suggests that market conditions continued to tighten which points toward an acceleration in price growth.

"The strong year-over-year growth in sales is obviously a good news story and likely represents some catchup from a slow start to the year. TREB's sales outlook for 2019 anticipates an increase relative to 2018. It should be noted, however, that growth in new listings is not keeping pace with sales. This points to the ongoing housing supply issue in the GTA. In this regard TREB welcomes the provincial government's Housing Supply Action Plan announced last week to reduce red tape and improve the mix of housing types. TREB provided input on the Plan through submissions and participation on working groups," said Mr. Bhaura.

The year-over-year rate of price growth generally edged up in April relative to the first three months of the year. The MLS® HPI Composite benchmark was up by 3.2 per cent – the highest rate of growth in more than a year. The average selling price was up by 1.9 per cent to $820,148, representing the strongest annual rate of growth so far in 2019. On a preliminary seasonally adjusted basis, the average selling price was also up by 1.1 per cent compared to March 2019.

Price growth continued to be driven by the condominium apartment segment and higher-density low-rise segments. The average price for detached houses dipped year-over-year, specifically in regions surrounding the City of Toronto. The detached market segment, with the highest price point on average, has arguably been hardest hit by measures such as the OSFI stress test.

"While sales were up year-over-year in April, it is important to note that they remain well-below April levels for much of the past decade. Many potential home buyers arguably remain on the sidelines as they reassess their options in light of the OSFI-mandated two percentage point stress test on mortgages. Longer term borrowing costs have trended lower this year and the outlook for short-term rates, for which the Bank of Canada holds the lever, is flat to down this year. Unfortunately, against this backdrop, we have seen no movement toward flexibility in the OSFI stress test," said Jason Mercer, TREB's Chief Market Analyst.

Source:Toronto Real Estate Board

TORONTO, December 12, 2015 – Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Feb.11, 2015 announced changes to the rules for government-backed mortgage insurance to contain risks in the housing market, reduce taxpayer exposure and support long-term stability. Effective February 15, 2016, the minimum down payment for new insured mortgages will increase from 5 per cent to 10 per cent for the portion of the house price above $500,000. The 5 per cent minimum down payment for properties up to $500,000 remains unchanged.

See below my graphics on the changes and my impact assessment on the housing market.

Source: Government of Canada Takes Action to Maintain a Healthy, Competitive and Stable Housing Market

TORONTO, December 1, 2015 - There will be no extension of Municipal land transfer tax beyond Toronto. Toronto has been charging municipal land transfer tax on top provincial land transfer tax. The Ontario Real Estate Association was arguing against the additional land transfer tax and as a result this and other consultations by the Municipal Affairs Minister Ted McMeekin, he has decided not to extend the municipal land transfer tax beyond Toronto.

source

February 8, 2012 - Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and five other major real estate boards including Toronto Real Estate Board have developed a new index to measure the trend in house prices and inflation in the housing market. There are a number of indices under MLS® HPI indices. This is similar to Consumer Price Index (CPI) that is a measure of consumer price inflation.
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