From the Desk of Faisal - Real Estate News for the period of Apr 3rd - Apr 9th

Welcome to Properties Ontario’s weekly real estate update. Our team goes through numerous articles and summarize them for you! If you have any questions about buying, selling, or leasing residential or commercial space, we’re the team for you.

TREB and Toronto March 2019 Stats

TREB March 2019 Statistics (March 2018 comparison in brackets)

• Benchmark Price: $779,100 (+2.6%)
• Median Price: $690,000 (+2.98%)
• Average Price: $788,335 (+0.48%)
• Number of Sales: 7,187 (-0.01%)
• New Listings: 13,996 (-5.85%)
• Sales to New Listings Ratio: 51.35 (balanced market)
• Active Listings: 15,576 (-2.47%)
• Months of Inventory: 2.17 if no new listings came on the market

Toronto March 2019 Statistics (March 2018 comparison in brackets)

• Benchmark Price: $863,800 (+5.55%)
• Median Price: $682,000 (+3.33%)
• Average Price: $830,043 (+1.51%)
• Number of Sales: 2,545 (-8.55%)
• New Listings: 4,527 (+2%)
• Sales to New Listings Ratio: 56.22 (balanced market, slightly towards seller)
• Active Listings: 4,577 (+11.52%)
• Months of Inventory: 1.80 if no new listings came on the market

Canadian Outstanding Debt

• Balance of Canadian household debt reached $2.16 trillion in February 2019, growing 0.01% monthly or growing by 3.2% from February 2018
• Mortgage debt represents $1.55 trillion of the total, up 0.06% monthly and 3.2% annually
• Consumer debt represents $618 billion, down 0.12% monthly and up 3.4% annually

Ottawa Real Estate Market

• Ottawa home sales were 1,511 in March 2019, down 8.6% from the year before
• Of the total home sales, residential units had 1,136 sales (down 12.4% annually) and condo sales totalled 375 (down 5% annually)
• The Ottawa real estate board claims the reduction in sales are due to the lack of inventory which is shown in the days on market that fell by 14% for residential and 36% for condos
• Ottawa population is expected to increase by 8.8% every year which will mean prices will continue to increase if supply is not increased as well
• Average sale price of residential class property was $480,143, up 7.2% year over year
• Average sale price of condo units was $290,181, up 5.2% year over year
• Rental vacancy rates are currently below 1% for Ottawa which provides an opportunity

Broad Measure of Money in Canada

• M1+ is currency outside banks, checking accounts at charted banks or trust companies
• The 12-month pace of growth in February was 3.7% which is 11% lower than the month before and 45% lower than the same month last year
• The three-month annualized rate fell by 0.1% versus growing which points to a further contraction of the money supply and could prompt BoC to cut interest rates

Federal Government Investment in Toronto

• The federal government has announced that Toronto will receive $1.3 billion to invest in renovating more than 58,000 affordable housing units
• The investment is part of CMHC’s $13.2 billion initiative called National Housing Co-Investment Fund (under the National Housing Strategy)

Balance of Insured Mortgages

• Balance of outstanding insured mortgages was $456.35 billion in January, down 1.35% from the month before and down 9.37% from January 2018
• Insured mortgages have been declining for since mid-2017 but declines have intensified
• 51.46% of insured mortgages are 5 year or longer fixed rates while variable mortgages accounted for about 20% of all insured mortgages

Housing Starts Release for March

• Annual pace of housing starts, on a seasonally adjusted basis, was 192,527 units in March 2019 which fell just short of the 196,500 prediction made by economists
• Urban multi-unit starts (condos, townhome, apartments) represented 135,894 units
• For comparison, housing starts were 166,290 units in February 2019
• The six-month moving average stood at 202,279 units in March, close to February figure

GTA Detached Market Stats for March 2019

TREB Detached March 2019 Statistics (March 2018 comparison in brackets)

• Benchmark Price: $923,000 (+0.08%)
• Median Price: $850,000 (-2.63%)
• Average Price: $984,782 (-2.08%)
• Number of Sales: 3,230 (+3.52%)
• New Listings: 7,364 (-8.07%)
• Sales to New Listings Ratio: 43.86 (balanced market, leaning towards buyer)
• Active Listings: 9,361 (-3%)
• Months of Inventory: 2.90 if no new listings came on the market

Toronto Detached March 2019 Statistics (March 2018 comparison in brackets)

• Benchmark Price: $1,120,200 (+1.79%)
• Median Price: $1,000,000 (-1.08%)
• Average Price: $1,267,598 (-2.03%)
• Number of Sales: 671 (-4.95%)
• New Listings: 1,431 (-2.85%)
• Sales to New Listings Ratio: 46.89 (balanced market)
• Active Listings: 1,750 (+6.57%)
• Months of Inventory: 2.61 if no new listings came on the market