TORONTO — The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says its agents sold a record 10,563 homes in October, a 25.1 increase from October 2019 as the housing market recovers from spring’s COVID-19 slowdown.
The board says the average selling price for homes was $968,318 in October, 13.7 per cent higher than last October’s average of $851,877.
TRREB’s chief market analyst Jason Mercer says the housing market has now caught up to where it was this time last year, despite a near halt in home sales this spring when the COVID-19 lockdown began.
But the pandemic has pulled buyers away from downtown condos and toward more spacious detached homes with yards, according to board president Lisa Patel.
As buyers competed over limited listings for detached homes, the number of condos listed for sale this October was double the number of condos that hit the market in October 2019.
Condo sales rose 2.2 per cent overall compared with this time last year, but fell 8.5 per cent in the city of Toronto and increased 28.4 per cent in the suburbs.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2020.
The Canadian Press
