Toronto Housing Market Posts Biggest Price Gain in 21 Months

(Bloomberg) -- The Toronto housing market continued to rebound in September, with prices rising the most in 21 months, bringing the cost of a typical home close to the record high set in 2017.

The benchmark price across all types of homes rose 5.2% from a year earlier to C$805,500 ($604,957), the highest annual rate of growth since December 2017. That’s about C$10,000 short of the record set more than two years ago when soaring prices prompted a series of government policy changes to cool the market. Prices were driven higher by a decline in supply, with active listings down 14% to 17,254.

Sales in the Toronto region jumped 22% to 7,825 units from the same period last year, the Toronto Real Estate Board said Thursday. All housing segments saw double-digit gains, led by a 29% sales jump for detached homes. Sales were well below the record set in September 2016 of more than 9,800, and on a seasonally-adjusted basis, sales fell 0.3% from August.

The average price of a home in Toronto rose 5.8% to C$843,115, the highest price this year, though well below the peak of almost C$921,000 set in April 2017.

Demand for homes in Canada’s biggest city continues to grow amid lower interest rates and a crunch in supply thanks to strong immigration flows. Buyers have also adjusted to stricter mortgage-lending rules put in place to cool the market. Sales in Vancouver rebounded 46% last month after a policy-driven slump, though prices continue to dip.

To contact the reporters on this story: Natalie Wong in Toronto at nwong133@bloomberg.net;Erik Hertzberg in Ottawa at eschmitzhert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier

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