Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada’s biggest housing market, declined 21.7% from a year earlier as high interest rates keep potential buyers on the sidelines.
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said that there were 7,013 homes sold across the GTA in May, down from 8,960 that were sold in May 2023.
The average selling price of a home in Greater Toronto was down 2.5% year-over-year in May at $1.17 million.
New listings across the metropolitan region rose 21.1%, with 18,612 new properties put on the market during the month of May.
TRREB said in a news release that potential homebuyers are waiting for signs of declining mortgage rates to get off the sidelines and make a purchase decision.
Relief might be on the way as the Bank of Canada is widely expected to lower interest rates later today (June 5), with economists forecasting a 25-basis point reduction.
Vancouver Sales Drop
Across the country, the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board reported that the number of homes sold in that city fell 19.9% in May from a year ago as the number of new properties listed for sale rose substantially.
There were 2,733 homes sold in Vancouver last month, down from 3,411 sales recorded a year earlier. Sales this May were 20% below the 10-year seasonal average for the month.
The decline was due to the number of Vancouver homes listed for sale rising 46.3% year-over-year to 13,600, which is nearly one-fifth higher than the 10-year seasonal average.
The real estate board said that May home sales in Vancouver were impacted by higher borrowing costs to worries about the economy.
The average Vancouver home price in May was $1.21 million, up 2.3% from a year ago.
The current prime mortgage rate among Canada’s five largest banks is 7.35%.
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