The average price of a home in Toronto has dropped 19 per cent since April 2017.

The average price of a home in Toronto has dropped 19 per cent since April 2017.
Photo Credit: Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press

Home sales, prices drop in Greater Toronto Area

Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area dropped by 40.4 per cent in July compared to the same month in 2016, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. The average selling price of all homes was $746,218 and while that up five per cent from last July, it was down from $920,791 in April 2017.

The number of homes newly listed for sale was only slightly over last year at 5.1 per cent.

Toronto’s red hot housing market has cooled, but it is being attributed to would-be home buyers waiting to see how the market evolves.
Toronto’s red hot housing market has cooled, but it is being attributed to would-be home buyers waiting to see how the market evolves. © CBC

Decline not about foreign buyers, says board

There has been concern that foreign buyers have been snapping up homes in Toronto and Vancouver and that that has been driving up prices and sales. Vancouver passed tax measures to try to cool the market. They did for a while but the market there has since rebounded.

While Toronto introduced several changes in April including a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers, the board’s president thinks the decline has less to do with them and more to do with people taking a wait-and-see approach to the market.

Traditionally, home sales pick up in Canada after the vacation months of July and August.

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