TORONTO, January 7, 2015 - Toronto Real Estate Board President Paul Etherington
announced that Greater Toronto REALTORS® reported 92,867 residential sales
through the TorontoMLS system in 2014, including 4,446 in December. The calendar
year 2014 sales result represented a 6.7 per cent increase over the 2013 sales figure of
87,049 and was just short of the record set in 2007.
"TREB's 2014 sales figures are a testament to the importance Greater Toronto Area
households continue to place on home ownership. GTA households realize that home
purchases have been a quality long-term investment. While home prices certainly
increased substantially in 2014, the purchase of an average priced home remained
affordable, in terms of the average household's ability to comfortably cover their monthly
mortgage payments," said Mr. Etherington.
The average selling price continued to grow on a year-over-year basis in calendar year
2014, with an 8.4 per cent increase over calendar year 2013 to $566,726. This included
a seven per cent increase in the December 2014 average selling price to $556,602.
Throughout 2014, annual increases in the average selling price and the MLS® HPI
Composite Benchmark were consistently reported on a monthly basis for most market
segments, from detached homes through to condominium apartments.
"The strong price growth we experienced in 2014 can be explained with two words:
listings shortage. The constrained supply of listings was especially evident for low-rise
home types like singles, semis and town houses. The number of households looking to
purchase these home types increased, while the number of homes from which they
could choose decreased. This situation resulted in more competition between buyers
and more aggressive offers," said Jason Mercer, TREB's Director of Market Analysis.