There were new record house prices across the GTA in January as a report showed that the average price of a home has risen to $1,242,793.
According to the latest monthly report released by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), the average price of a home rose 28.6% year-over-year to it’s new high and marked the fourth time since the start of September that a new record price has been set.
Following on from the record set in the Greater Toronto Area, there were also new records for average price in almost all of the regions of the GTA. Durham Region ($1,175,010), Dufferin County ($1,023,219), Halton Region ($1,484,265), Peel Region ($1,291,955), Simcoe County ($1,237,354), and York Region ($1,519,583) all saw new records. For Durham Region, January marked the sixth month in a row with a new record for the average price, while Dufferin County saw the average price rise above $1 million for the first time ever.
All house types proved to be popular among buyers as we saw record house prices for a number of categories of homes. Detached homes rose 28% year-over-year to a new high of $1,741,318. Semi-detached homes increased 32% year-over-year to a record average of $1,312,273. Townhomes saw a yearly rise of 34% to a new record average of $1,221,726. Meanwhile, condo townhomes and condo apartments saw records average prices of $936,264 and $748,566 after rising 34% and 25% respectively in the last 12 months.
Perhaps surprisingly when the record house prices are considered, the share of sales for the different home types saw some notable changes. Detached homes accounted for just 39.7% of all sales – the second lowest share we have seen in records since July 2011. meanwhile, condo apartments accounted for 35.8% of all sales, which is the largest ever share for that type of property. Normally, fewer detached sales and more condo sales would skew the average prices downwards, so the record house prices we saw in spite of this change gives a clear indication of how hot the market is right now.
Once again, supply and demand played a big part in the rising prices. Last month saw the second highest total of sales for January ever (5,636), behind only 2021. At the same time, there were just 4,140 active listings in January – the second lowest total ever and only the third time in the last 15 years that the number of active listings in the GTA has been below 5,000.
New listings were also rather low, with the total of 7,979 notably lower than the average of 9,030 from the previous 10 Januarys. We also saw the number of months inventory remain at 0.9 – which is the lowest it has ever been and a level that has only been reached two times previously (November 2021 and December 2021).
The good news for anyone who owns property in the Greater Toronto Area is that the the low inventory and the lack of new listings is likely to cause new record house prices in the coming months. It would take a huge increase in listings to meet the demand that has seen multiple offer situations on many listings in the GTA. That kind of increase in listings seems unlikely and, if the pattern of recent months continues, supply is likely to become even tighter in the short term, sending prices even higher.
