GTA home sales surged by 25% in October

Homes sales surged by 25.1% in the Greater Toronto Area last month, marking the fourth straight month of year-over-year increases, according to the latest data from the Toronto Real Estate Board.

Sales in the GTA rose to 10,563 in October from 8,445 during the same month last year, with detached homes, in particular, catching fire and demand outpacing new listings. But new condo listings doubled year-over-year last month, much to the delight of buyers, and sales only rose by 2.2%.

Although that has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic running renters out of the city, the trend was underway well before the crisis, according to a TREB news release. Nevertheless, a staid economy and tourism paucity compounded investors’ woes and adversely affected their cash flows, prompting many to deleverage themselves.

The MLS HPI composite benchmark still increased by 10.8% on an annual basis in October, with the average selling price across all housing types soaring by 13.7% to $968,138 from $851,877 in October 2019.

Homes sales in the GTA increased through the first 10 months of 2020 from the same period a year ago, which TREB correlated to the Bank of Canada cutting interest rates to record lows as a means of stimulating the languid economy. Moreover, the spring market was merely delayed by the pandemic, with July of this year marking a home sales record for the month with sales surging by 49.5% from June.