The Toronto Real Estate Board reported a substantial year-over-year increase in home sales in April 2019. The number of residential transactions jumped by 16.8% and 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 8%. 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. "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." said TREB's president Garry Bhaura.
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” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Chief Market Analyst.
If you would like to compare these numbers to the sales numbers in March, you can find them here.
