Louisa Baumander's Toronto Real Estate Market Update

September 7, 2017 

GTA REALTORS® RELEASE MONTHLY RESALE HOUSING MARKET FIGURES

Hello again. 

I hope you had a wonderful summer. It was a little wetter than usual for sure. I don’t mind that, living downtown with a south facing front garden... means less watering. But talking to a vendor at my local farmers market, the rain had put a real damper on his trade, the Toronto Islands have suffered to such an extent that The Rectory Café is closing it’s doors, and the landmark antique merry go round has been sold to help meet costs. 

To top it all, The Bank of Canada increased its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year. A raise in rates is a sign that contrary to what many people are experiencing, the economy is improving enough to allow borrowing costs to rise from historic lows reached in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. 

The overnight lending rate was raised from .75% to 1%. Fair to say, this will impact all areas of borrowing including mortgage rates. 

Fixed Rate Mortgage: this interest rate is impacted by the interest on bonds issued by the Federal government as opposed to Canada’s overnight rate. Until it comes time to renew, existing mortgages will not be affected. 

Variable Rate Mortgage: Payments on most variable-rate mortgages will be adjusted higher in a matter of days or weeks to reflect an increase in the overnight and prime rates. 

For first time buyers, the rules introduced last fall by the Federal government require home buyers with a less than 20% downpayment, to be "stress tested" to check ability to carry mortgage payments at the 5 year the Bank of Canada's conventional five-year fixed posted rate. 

The bank rate for a mortgage is currently at 4.84%, costing $572.53 per $100,000.00 borrowed. A discounted 5 year fixed runs at 2.84: $465.07 per $100,000.00. The variable rate is currently 2.7%: $433.16 per $100,000.00. 

Let me know if you need an introduction to a good mortgage broker. 

Toronto Real Estate News:

6,357 homes sold through TREB’s MLS® System in August 2017. This result was down by 34.8% compared to August 2016. 

New listings at 11,523, were down by 6.7%year when compared with the same period 2016, and was at the lowest level for August since 2010. 

The anticipation from TREB is that because economic conditions remain strong in the GTA and there is a slower pace of price growth, the demand for home ownership will increase as we move through the fall. 

The average selling price for all home types combined was $732,292 – up by three per cent compared to August 2016. This growth was driven by the semi-detached, townhouse and condominium apartment market segments that continued to experience high single-digit or double digit year-over-year average price increases. 

The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark,( https://housepriceindex.ca ) for typical home types throughout TREB’s market area, was up by 14.3 per cent year-over-year in August. The fact that MLS® HPI growth outstripped average price growth points to fewer high-end home sales this year compared to last. The HPI for August 2017 is released September 13th. 

“The relationship between sales and listings in the marketplace today suggests a balanced market. If current conditions are sustained over the coming months, we would expect to see year-over-year price growth normalize slightly above the rate of inflation. However, if some buyers move from the sidelines back into the marketplace, as TREB consumer research suggests may happen, an acceleration in price growth could result if listings remain at current levels,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s Director of Market Analysis. 

Prices seem to be softening, but are still high. In desirable neighbourhoods, listings are in still in tight supply. I am seeing low low prices with offer dates again. Courageous? Let me know if I can be of any assistance. 

Any questions about anything written in this newsletter? Please email me..I’ll be glad to help. 

Louisa