Toronto's bloated housing market had another near-record month

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) homes are being scooped up at fever pitch. Last month saw the second-highest October level of home sales on record in the region, falling a few hundred sales short of the record-breaking October 2020 sales volume.

This continues a trend seen for the past several months, most recently with solid sales numbers and price appreciation reported for September. October kept the pace, with 9,783 sales reported across the region. While this is still a 6.9 per cent decline from the October 2020 record of 10,503, it's by no means a small number.

JUST RELEASED‼️ #TRREB Calls for Housing Solutions as Demand Outweighs Supply🏠 October saw near record home sales, low inventory, and strong price growth👉🏽Access TRREB’s latest #MarketWatch Report to LEARN MORE.👈🏽

➡️HERE 🔗 https://t.co/ktZ7owOqNB ⬅️ pic.twitter.com/1tymviYIm0

— Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (@TheReal_TRREB) November 3, 2021

Such high sales have put a strain on the supply of homes, inventory struggling to meet demand and contributing to a tightening of the market. The number of listings for October dropped by about one-third year-over-year, fuelling competition and driving already stratospheric home prices further out of reach.

And, oh, those ridiculous prices.

Benchmark home prices shot skyward 24.2 per cent year-over-year, while the average selling price for a GTA home jumped 19.3 per cent year-over-year to $1,155,345.

The Toronto average price of $1,122,463 is actually lower than the going rate in the rest of the GTA of $1,176,175, so if you thought the 'burbs would save you from runaway housing prices, you thought wrong.

But hey, don't worry. Doug Ford just increased the minimum wage to $15/hr, so that should solve everything, right?

TRREB President Kevin Crigger thinks that the only path to affordability in the GTA is "to deal with the persistent mismatch between demand and supply. Demand isn't going away. And that's why all three levels of government need to focus on supply."

"The federal government has stated that collaboration with provinces and municipalities is required. This collaboration could be spearheaded, at least in part, with housing-related incentives tied to federal infrastructure investment," said Crigger.

The board is putting pressure on provincial and municipal candidates in the upcoming 2022 Ontario elections to put housing strategy at the top of their to-do lists.

"Ontarians need to be clear on what would-be policymakers will do to alleviate supply shortages and related affordability challenges," said TRREB CEO John DiMichele.