GTA Home Prices Climb 16.8% in June

GTA HOME PRICES CLIMB 16.8% IN JUNE

The uphill journey facing would-be-buyers got even steeper in June with home prices climbing by double digits compared to a year ago as supply hit record lows.

The average price of a GTA property last month rose by 16.8% to $746,546 according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

As has been the trend, low-rise houses that includes detached, semis and townhomes saw the most significant price gains. The average detached home in the suburban GTA will run you $892,373, up a staggering 21%, while in Metro-Toronto, detached properties changed hands for around the $1.29-million mark.

Despite monumental price gains and shrinking supply however, the volume of sales still climbed by 7.5% - largely propped up by fervent buying activity in the suburbs and the bustling downtown condominium market. 

The suburban 905 accounted for nearly 75% of the GTA's family housing market, while Toronto still reigned as condo central with 68% of the region's high-rise sales.

It's worth noting however, condo prices in the suburbs actually outpaced Toronto in June, with values up 10.7% in the burbs vs. the city's 6.9% year-over-year increase - perhaps a sign more suburbanites are flocking to affordable condos in the face of sky high family house prices. 

In 2016 so far, sales of freehold houses under the $500,000 market plummeted nearly 40% in the GTA compared to the same time last year, while properties between $500 thousand and $1-million increased by 15%. On the other hand, homes valued above a million saw a sales increase of at least 65% - with upper tier luxury properties in the plus $3-million range actually skyrocketing by 86%.

The rapid-fire pace at which house prices are climbing in the GTA has been a hot topic of discussion, with federal and provincial governments taking notice. Under the helm of a new president, the Toronto Real Estate Board has also vowed to take a more active role in investigating the conditions driving the heated seller's market.

"As I start my term as TREB President, we are certainly in an interesting environment for ownership housing," wrote Larry Cerqua in a statement. "TREB will be undertaking, and making public, results of additional research in the second half of 2016, with the goal of proactively adding to the housing policy discussion," he added.

However, despite record-price gains last month, there may be some solace for buyers as June closes out the heated spring market, which is traditionally the busiest season in real estate when property values hit their peak for the year. In fact, compared to the previous month of May, statistically the most expensive time of year to buy a home, prices in June actually went down collectively by roughly $5,500.

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