'Troubling trend': Toronto posts record home sales in July as listings plummet

Toronto’s housing market churned out another record-breaking month in July.

Almost 10,000 homes changed hands in the Greater Toronto Area, the highest recorded number for the month of July, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported. Average resale prices jumped 16.6 per cent to $709,825, with the cost of detached homes soaring 21 per cent from the same period last year, to $952,983.

The market also continued to experience what the board called “a troubling trend in the GTA” of demand, particularly for detached homes, far outstripping supply.

Even as the number of home sales rose slightly from the same month last year, resale listings fell almost 14 per cent in Toronto and dropped slightly more than 3 per cent in the suburbs.

“Housing policy is now top of mind for all levels of government,” said board president Larry Cerqua in a statement. “Policy-makers need to be focusing on solutions to the sustained lack of low-rise inventory throughout the GTA.”

Prices for detached homes in Toronto rose 20.7 per cent to an average of more than $1.2-million, even as the number of sales fell 6.5 per cent from the same time last year. In the 905 region, prices for detached homes hit $888,565, up almost 22 per cent from last July amid slightly higher sales numbers.

Buyers paid record prices for all types of properties. Townhouses and semi-detached homes also saw double-digit annualized price gains in July. Condo prices rose more than 9 per cent from the same month last year, to more than $406,865. Average resale condo prices jumped 13 per cent in the 905 region and 8.2 per cent in the 416 area.

York Region saw the biggest gain in detached-home values, with benchmark prices up 23.51 per cent from a year earlier.