“As I begin my term as TREB President, I think it is important to point out that our region continues to grow in response to our diverse economic, ethnic and cultural bases.  The GTA consistently receives international accolades as one of the best places in the world to live and do business.  As the number of households grow, many of them will take advantage of the diversity of affordable home ownership opportunities that exist in Toronto and the surrounding areas,” said Mr. McLean.

Selling prices were up markedly on a year-over-year basis in June, for all major home types.  The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark was up by 8.9 per cent in comparison to June 2014.  The average selling price was up by 12.3 per cent over the same period to $639,184.

High-end homes have accounted for a greater share of overall transactions this year compared to last year.  This is the key reason why the average selling price has increased at a greater annual rate than the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark.

“It is encouraging to see that new listings have edged upward so far this year, as homeowners have reacted to strong home price growth and have looked to take advantage of increased equity in their homes.  However, the annual rate of sales growth continues to far outstrip listings growth, which means that there remains a lot of willing buyers in the marketplace who haven’t found a home that meets their needs.  As long as this situation persists, expect home prices to trend strongly upward,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here

Source: TREB

“During my tenure as TREB President over the past year, it is clear to me that ownership housing remains top of mind as a quality long-term investment for GTA households.  This is why, despite a shortage of listings in some market segments, we experienced a record number of sales reported through TREB’s MLS® System for the month of May,” said Mr. Etherington.

Record May transactions, coupled with a dip in the number of homes available for sale, resulted in strong price growth.  The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite Benchmark was up by 8.9 per cent year over year in May.  The MLS® HPI uses benchmark homes to estimate price growth.  This allows for an “apples to apples” comparison of price growth that is not affected by changes in the mix of sales activity.

The average selling price for all home types combined in May 2015 was up by 11 per cent annually to $649,599.  The higher annual rate of average price growth compared to the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark points to the fact that the proportion of high-end home sales continued to be greater compared to 2014.

“Tight market conditions, especially for singles, semis and town homes in the GTA, have resulted in strong price growth regardless of the price metric being considered.  With no relief so far on the listings front, expect similar rates of price growth as we move through the remainder of 2015.  At this point, a number of months where listings growth outstrips sales growth would be required to satisfy pent-up demand,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here

Source:TREB

“The record April result clearly points to the fact that a growing number of GTA households view ownership housing as a high quality long-term investment.  This is evidenced by the strong sales growth we have experienced in Toronto and surrounding regions for all major home types.  First-time buyers and existing homeowners remain very active in today’s market,” said Mr. Etherington.

The overall average selling price, which accounts for all homes reported sold by GTA REALTORS® in April 2015, was up by 10 per cent year-over-year to $635,932.  The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) composite benchmark, which estimates the price of a benchmark home with the same attributes from one period to the next, was up by 8.4 per cent over the same period.  The fact that average price growth outpaced growth for the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark, suggests that a greater share of higher-end homes changed hands this year compared to last.

Irrespective of the indicator used, price growth in the GTA was strongest for low-rise home types.  However, the better supplied condominium apartment segment also remained healthy with price growth above the rate of inflation.

“Demand for ownership housing was very high relative to the number of homes available for sale in April.  This situation is not expected to change markedly as we move through the remainder of 2015.  Until we experience a sustained period in which listings grow at a faster pace than sales, annual rates of home price growth will remain strong,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here

Source: TREB

“Home sales increased compared to last year as the cost of home ownership remained affordable, with lower interest rates going a long way to mitigate the effect of rising home prices.  However, a substantial amount of pent-up demand remains in place, especially as it relates to low-rise market segments.  This suggests that strong competition between buyers, which has fuelled strong price growth so far this year, will continue to be experienced throughout the spring,” said Mr. Etherington.

In March, the average selling price for all reported transactions was $613,933 – up 10 per cent year-over-year. The MLS® HPI Composite Index, which tracks benchmark homes with the same attributes from one period to the next, was up by 7.9 per cent. Average price growth was strongest for detached homes in the City of Toronto, at 15.9 per cent. Over the same period the detached MLS® HPI in the ‘416’ area code increased 7.8 per cent.

The MLS® HPI provides a clear indication of price growth due to market forces – the relationship between demand and supply. Comparing MLS® HPI growth to average price growth provides a sense of the changing mix of home types sold from one period to the next.

“It is clear that seller’s market conditions in many parts of the GTA are driving price growth. However, looking at the detached market segment in the City of Toronto in particular, growth in the average selling price outstripped growth in the MLS® HPI. This points to the fact that the mix of detached homes sold this year compared to last has shifted towards more expensive properties,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here

Source: TREB

“Home sales increased compared to last year as the cost of home ownership remained affordable, with lower interest rates going a long way to mitigate the effect of rising home prices. However, a substantial amount of pent-up demand remains in place, especially as it relates to low-rise market segments. This suggests that strong competition between buyers, which has fuelled strong price growth so far this year, will continue to be experienced throughout the spring,” said Mr. Etherington.

In March, the average selling price for all reported transactions was $613,933 – up 10 per cent year-over-year. The MLS® HPI Composite Index, which tracks benchmark homes with the same attributes from one period to the next, was up by 7.9 per cent. Average price growth was strongest for detached homes in the City of Toronto, at 15.9 per cent. Over the same period the detached MLS® HPI in the ‘416’ area code increased 7.8 per cent.

The MLS® HPI provides a clear indication of price growth due to market forces – the relationship between demand and supply. Comparing MLS® HPI growth to average price growth provides a sense of the changing mix of home types sold from one period to the next.

“It is clear that seller’s market conditions in many parts of the GTA are driving price growth. However, looking at the detached market segment in the City of Toronto in particular, growth in the average selling price outstripped growth in the MLS® HPI. This points to the fact that the mix of detached homes sold this year compared to last has shifted towards more expensive properties,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here

Source: TREB

Are real estate agents really making a grand an hour? A Toronto real estate firm, which likes to advertise cut-rate commissions, would like you to believe that.

The problem may lie in how you calculate the working hours of your local realtor. In a red-hot market like Toronto, where a home might sell in 24 hours and a realtor puts in a few hours of work before pocketing a commission cheque that could be $25,000 on a $1-million home, the numbers might work.

Start adding up the hours driving around nervous first-time buyers to open houses and then preparing bids on multiple offers and always losing and that hourly rate starts coming down.

Head over to a moribund market like Alberta, where sales have abruptly stalled and days on the market are increasing, and that hourly wage may start dipping towards minimum wage if no commission cheques start coming in.

John Andrew, a professor at Queen’s University, who runs the executive seminars on corporate and investment real estate, said it’s an age-old debate that continues to flare as discounters with access to the Multiple Listing Service system take on established real estate.

“I was having this discussion with a friend who was saying how obscene the commission was because her house sold in four days,” said Mr. Andrew, adding there is a lot of work that contributed to the sale that isn’t considered. “We worked it out roughly and it was about $400 to $500 per hour.”

The argument from upstart real estate firm theredpin.com states that in 2014 8,477 Greater Toronto Area homes sold in three days or less which amounts to 15 hours of work or less. Based on an average sale price of $556,000 those sales mean $1,000 per hour, if you use a typical 2.5% commission for the selling agent.

Mr. Andrew says part of the argument about why fees should be lower is the barriers to entry for real estate professionals are low with most provinces allowing people to enter the industry after about six months or less of training.

“A real estate lawyer charges $350-$400 an hour but they have a law degree,” he said. “But the thing is for every sale that [takes a few days] there are ones that go on for months and months. I’m sure there are listings where the agents wish he never got the listing.”

Phil Soper, chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services, likens it to a lawyer who might spend hours in court but days preparing for the moment in front of the judge.

“You know, if a realtor is doing their job a house sells quickly. What bothers homeowners the most is a house that languishes,” said Mr. Soper. “In a seller’s market, the properties sell for high prices and it doesn’t take long. But on the other side, if you are helping them to find a place, it can take months in a market like Toronto.”

But it does beg the question: If you are only selling a home in a hot market, is it your responsibility to subsidize the realtor for all the time spent trying to find homes for buyers?

“You do have to remember that real estate agents are independent contractors and have expenses, so the number you see is not what they are making,” said Mr. Soper. “They have to pay their brokerage company, the national company, the [local board], the Canadian Real Estate Association and advertising.”

He said as a rule of thumb realtors keep about 50% of 70% of the revenue they take in from commissions. He adds commission rates have started to come down across the country but concedes that given how much home prices have risen, realtors are making more money during this boom.

“We lost about a basis point [on commission] every year. If you go back 20 years, the average commission rate was a full percentage point higher,” he said.

Mr. Soper says there are millionaire earners in the industry but he calculates the average agent, among the approximate 100,000 in the country, make about $20 per hour.

Source: The Globe and Mail

“Even with the record low temperatures last month, we still saw an increase in the number of people purchasing homes in the GTA. This speaks to the importance households place on home ownership and the fact that buyers continue to view ownership housing as a quality long-term investment in which they can live,” said Mr. Etherington.

The overall supply of homes for sale, as measured by the count of active listings at the end of February 2015, was down by 8.7 per cent compared to the same count in February 2014. This means that market conditions became tighter, leading to more competition between buyers.

The overall average selling price for February 2015 home sales was $596,163– up by 7.8 per cent compared to the average for February 2014. Driving this increase was the detached market segment. In the City of Toronto, the average detached selling price moved above $1 million dollars for the first time in a calendar month.

“The strong year-over-year price growth we experienced in February points to the robust demand for ownership housing in the GTA, coupled with a constrained supply of homes for sale in some market segments, especially where low-rise home types like singles, semis and townhouses are concerned,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here.

Source: TREB

Canada’s two priciest housing markets may not need the boost, but Toronto and Vancouver could be on the verge of a spike in foreign investment.

With the loonie falling about 10% against the U.S. dollar in the last six months, foreigners who have their money parked in greenbacks or in currencies pegged to the American dollar are likely to ramp up their interest in the Canadian marketplace, say industry experts.

Alberta, which is now facing a crunch of new listings and weak demand, is unlikely to see any benefit as investors run away from the province over oil price fears.

“The reputation of the oilpatch here has been tarnished a bit,” says Dan Scarrow, the Shanghai-based managing director of Canadian Real Estate Investment Centre, which was set up just two months ago, and is run by Vancouver-based Macdonald Real Estate Group.

He says the opposite is true in Vancouver and Toronto, where prices in January were up 7.5% and 6.1% respectively from a year ago, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. “With the Chinese economy slowing down a bit and with the Canadian dollar depreciating 20% versus the RMB, it might change the calculus of some people of how much they want to leave in China and how much they want to bring to Canada.”

Mr. Scarrow’s firm caused a stir last year with data it produced from its client base that showed 33.5% of all single-family homes sales in the Vancouver area could be traced to buyers from mainland China.

Foreign buyers and their position in the marketplace have been a  concern for some market watchers, who fear these investors are inflating housing prices. But there hasn’t been definitive data. Even the chief executive of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Evan Siddall, conceded there were data gaps.

The Crown corporation finally produced data two months ago on the condominium market that showed as much as 2.4% of Toronto highrises were in foreign hands and 2.3% in Vancouver, with some people still disputing those findings.

Mr. Scarrow says in terms of Chinese investors they are divided between people still living overseas and people already living in Canada but with money still parked in RMBs. With Chinese New Year over, he expects investment to pick up.

“Decisions have been held off until this week,” he says. “There is a lag for these things in terms of stats and what we see on the ground.”

Brian Johnston, chief operating officer of Toronto-based Mattamy Homes, has never been a believer of the idea that foreign investment was a huge factor in Canadian housing, but he says when you get can a 10% to 20% currency swing it has to be positive.

“To [foreign investors], the Canadian market has gone on sale,” said Mr. Johnston, noting his company also develops property in the United States it tries to sell to Canadians. “The reverse is true for them. The price of U.S. real estate just went up by 10%.”

Lennon Sweeting, a Toront0-based dealer with US Forex which trades in currencies, says the loonie is making housing more attractive to foreign buyers.

“The Bank of Canada has tried to offset lower prices with a weaker currency making investing in Canada more attractive,” said Mr. Sweeting, adding most high net worth investors are likely holding U.S. dollars right now. “Absolutely it makes it easier to buy [Canadian real estate]. If you’re holding U.S. dollars you are looking at buying at a discount and there’s plenty of supply.”

Low interest rates have also boosted demand, even though foreign investors tend to have to put up larger down payments when borrowing to buy property.

Shaun Hildebrand, senior vice-president at condo research firm Urbanation Inc., noted new condo sales in the Greater Toronto Area in 2014 rose over 50% from a year ago but it’s hard to pinpoint how much is attributable to foreign investors.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see more foreign investment in 2015,” said Mr. Hildebrand, adding surveys of Urbanation clients peg the foreign component of Toronto’s condo market at just under 5%.

Source: Financial Post

“The January results represented good news on multiple fronts. First, strong sales growth suggests home buyers continue to see housing as a quality long-term investment, despite the recent period of economic uncertainty. Second, the fact that new listings grew at a faster pace than sales suggests that it has become easier for some people to find a home that meets their needs,” said Mr. Etherington.

The average selling price for January 2015 home sales was up by 4.9 per cent year-over-year to $552,575. The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) Composite benchmark was up by 7.5 percent compared to January 2014.

“Home price growth is forecast to continue in 2015. Lower borrowing costs will largely mitigate price growth this year, which means affordability will remain in check. The strongest rates of price growth will be experienced for low-rise home types, including singles, semis and town houses. However, robust end-user demand for condo apartments will result in above-inflation price growth in the high-rise segment as well,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here.

Source: TREB

“TREB’s 2014 sales figures are a testament to the importance Greater Toronto Area households continue to place on home ownership. GTA households realize that home purchases have been a quality long-term investment. While home prices certainly increased substantially in 2014, the purchase of an average priced home remained affordable, in terms of the average household’s ability to comfortably cover their monthly mortgage payments,” said Mr. Etherington.

The average selling price continued to grow on a year-over-year basis in calendar year 2014, with an 8.4 per cent increase over calendar year 2013 to $566,726.  This included a seven per cent increase in the December 2014 average selling price to $556,602.  Throughout 2014, annual increases in the average selling price and the MLS® HPI Composite Benchmark were consistently reported on a monthly basis for most market segments, from detached homes through to condominium apartments.

“The strong price growth we experienced in 2014 can be explained with two words: listings shortage. The constrained supply of listings was especially evident for low-rise home types like singles, semis and town houses. The number of households looking to purchase these home types increased, while the number of homes from which they could choose decreased. This situation resulted in more competition between buyers and more aggressive offers,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis.

For a complete list of report, please click here.

Source: TREB