December 2017 - What a Ride - The New Street Resale Real Estate Report for The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region
What a rollercoaster ride. Looking at the chart below, that's pretty much how you can summarize the real estate market in 2017 in the Greater Toronto & Hamilton Area markets. The average price of a home increased by just shy of a full percentage point to $735,021 in the Toronto Real Estate Board MLS® System from the previous year. The Realtors Association of Hamilton & Burlington saw a more significant jump of 11.5% to $521,648. Although the monthly trend in the average price for both boards was similar, the strong demand for affordable housing after the Fair Housing Plan was introduced in April 2017 resulted in the Hamilton region seeing a much more significant year over year increase than the GTA throughout the latter part of the year including December.
GTA & Hamilton Home Prices - TREB & RABH MLS Systems - Last 12 Months
December is historically a slow month and with the market calming down in 2017, it's not a surprise that sales were in the negative. We saw over 30% less sales in December than in the previous month before and a 7-15% dip from last December. The time it takes to sell a home on the market was up significantly with the average Days on Market for a home increasing by 35-52% from the previous year between both real estate boards. Interestingly, new listings were down from last month but up from last year by approximately 50% on the Toronto Real Estate Board. In the Hamilton-Burlington area, new listings were down on a monthly and annual level.
GTA & Hamilton Homes Sales Stats – December 2017
When we evaluate each home type individually in the Toronto Real Estate board, we see similar trends to previous months as well as interesting new insights:
- Detached homes continue to see slight drops in their average price, with double-digits decreases in the number of sales
- The average price of a condo was up over 14% in both the 905 and 416 areas making it the home type that saw the highest amount of growth in price over 2017
- The semi-detached market in Toronto saw a 25% increase in number of sales from the previous year with the price also up 11.5%
GTA Sales & Average Price by Home Type - December 2017
The Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington MLS System reported a total of 713 freehold and condominium sales in December. Down by double digits from the previous month and from December last year. With the prices continuing to dip slightly from the previous month, the average price from the previous year was still up by 7.4% on freehold homes and 22.6% on condominiums.
Hamilton & Burlington Sales & Average Price by Home Type - December 2017
When we look at the stats on a map for each community in the Hamilton-Burlington area we see how things are performing on a more local level:
- Sales in Burlington were down by 38% from last month but still up from last year by 7.5%
- The Hamilton Mountain area was up in sales and the average price when compared to last year
- Grimsby saw the largest average price gains ranging from 33-50% from the previous month and year at $762,215
- Dundas was right behind Grimsby seeing the average price jump from 25-40% from the previous month and year at $714,491
- Ancaster saw the third highest price jump from the previous month and year ranging from 15-20% but held the highest average home price in the region at just under $800,000.
Hamilton & Burlington Prices & Sales by Community (RAHB's MLS System) - December 2017
Now let's dig into the GTA. Here is some interesting stats on how home types performed in local markets throughout the Greater Toronto Area in December 2017. Toronto
- Condo Towns in the west end of Toronto saw a 48.4% jump in sales and a 19% jump in the average price from the previous year.
- The average price of a condo was up across the City, with the east-end seeing the highest jump at 21.8% from the previous year
- The average price of a Semi-detached home was up across the city with the west-end seeing a 16.4% increase
Mississauga
- The average price of a detached home averaged at just over 1 million dollars, up almost 4% from last December. With sales at similar levels to the previous year.
- The average price of a condo ended up at approximately $400,000 in December, up more than 15% from the previous year. With the number of sales up by 2.3%.
- The overall number of sales in Mississauga for the month of December was 490. This was within a 1% difference from the previous year. Prices were up by 4.3%.
Oakville
- Oakville ended off the year on a positive note, with prices up over 4% on average making the average price of a home just over 1 million dollars. This coins Oakville as the most expensive city (on average) to buy a home in the GTA.
- Although detached home sales were down by over 15% in Oakville, the price was still up a healthy 8.5% from the previous year. Averaging approximately 1.35 Million
- Townhomes almost doubled in sales volume with the average price up by 11.3%
- One of the biggest price increases seen in all of GTA was the 41.8% increase in the average price of a condo in Oakville in December at $539,404.
Other
- Sales activity throughout the York region remained down from last year
- The average prices in Newmarket, Aurora and Richmond Hill all saw double-digit dips, mainly in single-family homes
- Condos in Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham saw 12-20% increases in their average price
- Average prices in Brampton & Halton Hills were up across the board in December 2017 from the previous year
- With condo towns and condos in Brampton up over 20%
- Detached, semis and townhomes in Brampton were up 5-12%
- With only 43 sales, Halton Hills saw average price jumps of 7-60%
GTA Prices & Sales by Area (TREB's MLS System) - December 2017
The real estate market definitely resembled an unpredictable roller coaster ride throughout 2017. With skyrocketing prices early on in the winter to a 16-part provincial effort to slow down the market in the spring to mortgage hikes that kept things unpredictable throughout the latter part of the year. It was an interesting year surrounded by a myriad of trends from across the region. It's important to note that generalizing the market is difficult and it's important to analyze stats on a granular level for a longer term to really understand a specific market. These monthly reports simply help provide us with a certain level of insight on the general fluctuations that are going on in the market. We look forward to releasing our annual real estate report in coming weeks and going even deeper on our analysis in 2018. Let us know your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Note: Many of the stats in this report use home type classifications and averages to provide a general idea of recent activity in the real estate market throughout the GTA and Hamilton regions. These averages give us a high level summary of the real estate market throughout the region and within each city compared to the previous month and year. These stats may or may not be relevant to a particular home or homes within a particular community. To better understand the home value of any particular property it is best to request a CMA from a REALTOR® and analyze sales of comparable homes within close proximity of the subject property.
Opinions are my own and should not be taken as advice. Data Compiled by New Street from TREB (Toronto Real Estate Board) and RAHB (Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington). In association with Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage, 5111 New Street, Burlington, ON L7L 1V2. The information here is deemed reliable but not guaranteed by New Street, TREB or RAHB. Not intended to solicit listed properties or buyers under agency agreements.