TORONTO, January 7, 2015 - Toronto Real Estate Board
President Paul Etherington announced that Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 92,867
residential sales through the TorontoMLS system in 2014, including 4,446 in
December. The calendar year 2014 sales result represented a 6.7 per cent increase
over the 2013 sales figure of 87,049 and was just short of the record set in 2007.
"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.
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