The latest data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) was released this morning and, while sales activity has cooled off from its March peak, prices have never been higher. Literally.
In fact, the average price of a property sold in the GTA in May -- including all home types -- was $1,108,453. That's a 28.4% over May 2020's $863,563 average. Again, that's the average for any type of home in the region, from condos and townhouses to fully detached.
For those keeping count, that means the average GTA property banked just shy of $245K in the past 12 months. Monthly, that's a value gain of more than $20K.
These are the kinds of numbers that have led many young Canadians to give up on the idea of homeownership.
READ: What Would a Canadian Real Estate Bubble Burst Actually Look Like?
For further context, here's just how much each type of property has increased in value -- according to average sale price -- in the past year.
GTA HOME TYPE MAY 2020 MAY 2021
Condo Apt $625,445 $682,280
(+9.1%)
Townhouse $686,854 $866,349 (+26.2%)
Semi-Detached $867,717 $1,064,361 (+22.6%)
Detached $1,033,341 $1,415,698 (+37.0%)
We all hope for growth in our investments, but the Toronto real estate market is currently in 'to the moon' mode, and it is taking prisoners -- namely, an entire generation of would-be homebuyers who have been pushed to the sidelines because of price increases so rapid they make a $2M bungalow in a rundown neighbourhood look like a solid bet.
Even if you did get a 40% raise this year (you didn't), it seems nearly impossible to keep up with this rate of growth.
To put this in perspective, if growth rates continued at the same pace in each housing segment as they have over the last 12 months for the next four years, the average price of a detached home in the GTA would be just about $5M. The average price for a condo anywhere in the GTA? That would reach more than $965K.
Of course, this is very unlikely to happen (this quickly), but CMHC is already forecasting a further rise in average national home prices of 14% in 2021 alone. In a few short years, the average price of a home across the entire country could reach the $700K mark.
All of this is to say, the pursuit of the Canadian dream -- a dream that is, and always has been, intrinsically tied to homeownership -- is becoming more and more of a logistical nightmare for many.
