|
Second-Best Year on Record for Sales
January 5, 2012 -- Greater Toronto REALTORS? reported 4,718 transactions through the TorontoMLS? system in December 2011. The December result capped off the second-best year on record under the current Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) boundaries. Total sales for 2011 amounted to 89,347 ¨C up four per cent in comparison to 2010.
¡°Low borrowing costs kept Buyers confident in their ability to comfortably cover their mortgage payments along with other major housing costs,¡± said TREB President Richard Silver. ¡°If Buyers had not been constrained by a shortage of listings over the past 12 months, we would have been flirting with a new sales record in the Greater Toronto Area,¡± added Silver.
The average selling price in December was $451,436 ¨C up four per cent compared to December 2010. For all of 2011, the average selling price was $465,412, an increase of eight per cent in comparison to the average of $431,276 in 2010.
¡°Months of inventory remained below the pre-recession norm in 2011. Very tight market conditions meant substantial competition between Buyers and strong upward pressure on selling prices,¡± said Jason Mercer, TREB¡¯s Senior Manager of Market Analysis.
¡°TREB¡¯s baseline forecast for 2012 is for an average price of $485,000, representing a more moderate four per cent annual rate of price growth. This baseline view is subject to a heightened degree of risk given the uncertain global economic outlook,¡± continued Mercer.
|
