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Toronto home sales up this month as market stays tight

Jennifer Paterson
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New figures that show listings were down and sales were up in the GTA so far in April continue to drive the conversation around the need to balance supply and demand in this hot market.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported 4,635 home sales during the first 14 days of April, which represents a 3.4 per cent increase compared to April 2014. However, new listings over the same period were down by 4.6 per cent year-over-year.

“Home sales in the GTA continued to increase in comparison to 2014 as a diversity of buyers took advantage of affordable home-ownership options,” said TREB president Paul Etherington.

“However, in many neighbourhoods, listings remain scarce, particularly for ground-oriented home types like singles, semis and towns.

“Given the amount of pent-up demand in the market today, sales growth would accelerate further if more homes were listed for sale.”

The average selling price for April mid-month home sales was $625,121, up seven per cent in comparison to the same time frame in 2014. Average prices were up for all major home types, both in the City of Toronto and the surrounding regions.

“We are experiencing balanced to seller’s market conditions in most areas and market segments in the GTA,” added Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis.

“This suggests that home ownership demand is being driven by a wide swath of the population. On one hand, strong growth in condo listings has been met with strong growth in condo sales.

“On the other hand, we have also experienced growth in higher-end home sales.”

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