Ontario Real Estate Market Watch

GTA and surrounding areas.

Toronto Real Estate Board Members recorded 6,015 resale home transactions last month, down 11 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area overall , 14 per cent in the City of Toronto and 9 per cent in the 905 suburbs compared to February 2007.

The average price increased 4% in GTA area and 2% in Toronto compared to February 2007. As well, the time on market in February was 30 days compared to 35 days a year ago.

However the number of properties available for sale has decreased seven per cent from last February, this indicate that there is no over-supply of homes on the market.

Despite the overall decline, some GTA neighbourhoods experienced strong sales in February, Sales in Pickering rose 28% overall compared to a year ago due to a strong increase in condo townhouse and condo-apartment transactions. and sales in Rexdale increased 18 %.

Hamilton-Burlington

The Hamilton-Burlington area real estate market reported a total of 828 unit sales in January, indicating an increase of almost one per cent over the same month last year. In addition, it is important to note that new units listed are over 15 per cent greater compared to January 2007.

Residential sales numbers where in line with those of seen in January 2007, and Commercial sales incresed 18% over last year. Average sale price of freehold properties increased 10% compared to January 2007.

Ottawa and surrounding areas

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 654 residential units in January through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 764 in January 2007, a decrease of 14.4 per cent. There were 583 sales in December 2007.

The average price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in January in the Ottawa area was $284,340, an increase of 9 per cent over January 2007.

Conclusion

While the numbers above indicate overall drop down in housing sales in Ontario, they also indicate a healthy real estate market in general. As predicted by the Canadian Real Estate Association, home sales are expected to level off to roughly 2006 levels this year, which was the second-strongest year on record.

Information in this report is collected from the Real Estate Boards operating in each area of Ontario.