Borrowing Costs and Housing Supply Affecting the GTA Real Estate Market

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Toronto is located in Ontario, Canada. The houses here are very affordable and easily available. According to Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) in August 2022, the city has around 527 homes for sales representing a year-over-year fall of around 34.2%, a dip in annual rate as compared to the last four months.

 

But August sales of the city also showed a month-over-month rise as compared to July. There is a higher share of new listings in Toronto. If it continues so, it could represent some sort of support for selling housing prices in coming months.

 

On the basis of Home Price Index (HPI), this price was up around 8.9% and average housing price was high up to 0.9%. The average selling price in the city was a little bit high, the month-over-month price, while the composite of HPI was less as compared to July.

 

TRREB President Kevin Crigger said that while the higher borrowing costs have affected home buy decisions, existing house owners nearing the renewal of mortgage are also facing higher rates. There is room for the federal government to provide for the greater home affordability for existing owners by removing stress tests when the existing mortgages are moved to a new lender, allowing greater competition in the mortgage market.

 

According to the CEO of TRREB John DiMichele, the Office of Superintendent of Financial Institution (OSFI) should put weight on whether the recent stress test actually remains applicable or not. He further said that it is reasonable to test house buyers at 2% points above the recent elevated rates or we should apply a more resilient test that follows the interest rate cycle.

 

Moreover, according to him OSFI should think of removing the stress test for already existing holders of mortgage who wish to buy for the best possible rate at the renewal rather than making them stay with an already existing lender to keep away the stress test. This case particularly appears when there is no request for additional funds.

 

Let’s have a look at GTA data presented by TRREB. From August 1-31,2022, the sales, average price and new listings in the city of Toronto were 1892, 1031979 & 3785 respectively. The same values of GTA data were 3735, 1103573 & 752 respectively.

 

Canadian houses have the most amazing feature of different construction styles. These different construction styles are detached. semi-detached homes, townhomes and condominiums. The Real estate data of the city is also given by TRREB.

 

In August 1-31,2022, the total sales of detached houses were 2595 while total average price was 1,379,700. The year-over-year change in sales and total average price was -29.5 percent and -3.1 percent.

In the same way the total sales of semi-detached houses in the city were 526 and the total average price was 998,490. The year-over-year change in sales and total average price was -29% and -3.4%.

 

Likewise, the total sales of townhomes and condominiums were 935 & 1035 respectively. The total average price was 900,307 & 711,312 respectively.

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