MNI: Toronto Nov Home Sales Jump 40% From Year Ago As BOC Cuts
MNI (OTTAWA) - Home sales in Canada's largest city jumped 40% in November from a year earlier as households took advantage of falling interest rates and a dip in prices, a trend the Toronto real estate board said Wednesday will flow into next year.
Sales climbed 1.9% from October for the fifth advance in the last six months, lining up with the Bank of Canada's opening cut to borrowing costs in June. The Bank is expected to make its fifth reduction this year next Wednesday and several more in the second half of 2025 as inflation stabilizes. One reason the central bank hesitated to cut rates was sticky housing costs and Canada's recent history of bidding wars amid a short supply of family residences.
"With selling prices remaining well off their historic peak and monthly mortgage payments trending lower, the stage is set for an accelerating market recovery in 2025,” board President Jennifer Pearce said in a report. The group's index of home prices fell 1.2% from a year earlier, while a concentration of single-unit sales in November pushed up the average price 2.6% to CAD1.11 million.
One area of weakness is condos where "buyers are benefitting from a lot of choice and therefore negotiating power" the report said. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Canada Condo Dip Seen On Migrant Turn-Adviser)
Vancouver's realtors said Tuesday sales rose 28% in November from a year earlier. “As we move into the New Year, if the strength in demand continues at the current pace, and the pace of newly listed properties coming to market doesn’t keep up, it may not be long until we see the return of upward pressure on prices,” the agency's economist Andrew Lis said.