Ontario home sales set new August record

Residential sales activity reported through the MLS® Systems of real estate Boards and Associations in Ontario numbered 22,350 units in August 2016, an increase of 17.2 per cent from a year earlier.

This was the highest August sales figure on record, smashing the old record set back in 2016 by 16.6 per cent.

Nationally, home sales activity rose 10.2 per cent from year-ago levels in August 2016, boosted most by the year-over-year increase in Greater Toronto.

Provincial year-to-date home sales were running 9.3 per cent above the first eight months of 2015. The 173,896 homes that have traded hands so far this year put 2016 well on track to set a new annual record.

The provincial average price for homes sold in August 2016 was $518,586, rising 16.2 per cent from a year earlier.

The national average price, by comparison, rose 5.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis to $456,722.

The year-to-date average price for Ontario was $527,278, rising 13.2 per cent from a year earlier.

New listings on the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Ontario numbered 28,562 units in August, a decrease of 3.2 per cent from a year earlier.

Active residential listings numbered 46,359 units at the end of August, down 31.4 per cent from one year earlier. Supply has now fallen to the lowest level in over a decade.

There were just 2.1 months of inventory at the end of August 2016, down from 3.6 months at the same time one year ago and below the long-run average for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The value of all home sales in the province totalled $11.6 billion in August 2016, an increase of 36.2 per cent from August 2015. This was the highest level of any August on record and the first August to surpass $10 billion.

The dollar volume of all home sales in Canada was up 16.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

Sales of all property types in Ontario numbered 23,727 units in August, up 18 per cent from August 2015. The value of those sales amounted to $11.9 billion, rising 36.5 per cent from a year earlier.