Toronto Real Estate Board predicts average price of homes to increase by almost $100K this year
There’s some good, and some not-too-good news in the latest release by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).
TREB’s annual Market Year in Review and Outlook Report forecasts the 2017 real estate issues in Toronto, including including consumer intentions and the lack of housing supply.
For the good news, another strong year is predicted for home sales, with more than 100,000 sales forecasted for the third consecutive year. The report indicates that between 104,500 and 115,500 home sales are expected this year, which is down slightly from 113,133 sales reported in 2016. This forecast proves the city continues to be a sellers market.
As for the not-too-good news, TREB predicts housing costs to continue rising throughout the year. In fact, the strong demand for housing is what is causing the price growth.
“As a result of very strong demand for ownership housing up against an extremely constrained supply of listings in 2017, double-digit annual rates of price growth are expected to remain in place for the majority of home types across the GTA,” states a TREB press release. “The growth rate for the average selling price will be between 10 and 16 per cent with an average price range between $800,000 and $850,000.”
TREB is forecasting the average selling price will be $825,000, a difference of almost $100,000 compared to 2016’s average selling price of $729,922.
Low-rise home types, including detached and semi-detached houses and townhouses, will experience the strongest annual rates of price growth, but the condominium apartment market segment will remain tight as well, according to TREB.