Home Prices Continuing to Climb in Mississauga
Published September 7, 2018 at 7:44 pm
If you were hoping for a significant drop in home prices (and according to a recent Angus Reid survey, a whopping 27 per cent of respondents are hoping for a major crash), you will be disappointed to hear that the housing market is quite robust in Mississauga and surrounding cities.
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) recently revealed that Toronto (and the GTA in general) witnessed sales and price increases on a year-over-year basis in August.
TREB says GTA realtors reported 6,839 sales through TREB’s MLS system in August 2018 – an 8.5 per cent increase compared to August 2017.
Both the average selling price, at $765,270, and the MLS Home Price Index Composite Benchmark for August 2018 were up compared to the same month in 2017, by 4.7 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
The average selling price is increasing as well.
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TREB says detached home sales were up by double digits on a year-over-year percentage basis.
“It is encouraging to see a continued resurgence in the demand for ownership housing. Many home buyers who had initially moved to the sidelines due to the Ontario Fair Housing Plan and new mortgage lending guidelines have renewed their search for a home and are getting deals done much more so than last year,” says Garry Bhaura, TREB president.
“In a region where the economy remains strong and the population continues to grow, ownership housing remains a solid long-term investment.”
TREB says August 2018 sales were up by two per cent compared to July 2018. However, the seasonally adjusted August 2018 average selling price was down slightly by 0.2 per cent compared to July 2018, following strong monthly increases in May, June and July.
“Market conditions in the summer of 2018, including this past August, were tighter than what was experienced in the summer of 2017,” said Jason Mercer, TREB’s director of market analysis, adding that lack of housing inventory remains–and will continue to be–a serious problem.
“It has been a softer month than last throughout the Halton, Mississauga, and Brampton markets, but solid year-over-year improvement indicate conditions are starting to heat up, with buyers returning to the market following a turbulent year of mortgage and provincial housing policy changes,” Zoocasa said.
Zoocasa says Mississauga experienced softer sales and prices in August compared to July, adding that 12.7 per cent fewer homes available for sale has pushed buying conditions into tighter territory at a sales-to-new-listing-ratio of 62 per cent – within sellers’ market range. A total of 710 homes changed hands during the month at an average price of $683,819, representing month-over-month declines of -2.6 and -3.2 per cent, respectively.
Zoocasa says there’s been a considerable improvement from 2017, with sales activity up 12 per cent, pushing the average price 6 per cent higher than at the same time last year, with over home supply tightening by 4.1 per cent.
With municipal elections just over six weeks away, TREB says it’s working to connect voters with candidates through a new website.
“One of the key issues facing home buyers and renters in the GTA is inadequate housing supply and choice, and one of the main reasons for this is municipal policy that unnecessarily locks up housing options,” says Bhaura.
Whether it is approval delays, inflexible and outdated zoning rules, or market distorting taxes like Toronto’s Land Transfer Tax, current municipal policies are a big part of the reason why there is not enough gentle density housing, like semis, row homes, and multiplexes, in the GTA.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the market shifts going forward.
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