Canada’s priciest housing markets, Toronto and Vancouver, continued their sales rebound in August, but while Toronto is seeing a return to moderate price growth, Vancouver’s steep declines in selling prices continued.
Sales were up by 15.7 per cent in Greater Vancouver in August, the region’s real estate board reported, although that compares to a very weak August a year ago.
“With more demand from homebuyers, the supply of homes listed for sale isn’t accumulating like earlier in the year. These changes are creating more balanced market conditions,” said Ashley Smith, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
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But the sales jump came as sellers continued to lower their asking prices. The benchmark price for all property types fell back below $1 million earlier this year, and sat at $993,300 in August, 8.3 per cent lower than a year ago.
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Detached homes fell 9.8 per cent, to $1.4 million, while condos fell 7.4 per cent, to $654,000.
The story is somewhat different in Toronto, where a rebound in sales means house prices are rising once again.
The average selling price for all housing types was $792,611 in August, up 3.6 per cent compared with a year ago, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) reported. Sales were up 13.4 per cent from a year ago.
Toronto’s market is growing tighter, with the number of homes available for sale down by 11 per cent over the past year.
TREB economist Jason Mercer said competition between buyers is heating up again, but for now, price growth is moderate.
“However, if demand for ownership housing continues to increase relative to the
supply of listings, the annual rate of price growth will accelerate further,” he said in a statement.
Vancouver’s market is still looser than it was a year ago, with the number of homes available for sale up by 13.3 per cent compared to August 2018.
It takes an average of 55 days to sell a detached home in Greater Vancouver, and around 40 days for condos and townhomes ― up from around 30 days a year earlier.
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