Toronto-area home sales drop 39.5% from March 2017
A sold sign is shown in front of west-end Toronto homes Sunday, April 9, 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme RoyTORONTO – Canada’s largest real estate board says home sales in the Greater Toronto Area were down 39.5 per cent year-over-year in March.
The Toronto Real Estate Board says GTA realtors reported 7,228 residential transactions during the month compared to a record 11,954 sales in March 2017.
READ MORE: Toronto-area home sales down 35 per cent from February 2017: TREB
New listings totalled 14,866, representing a 12.4 per cent drop from March 2017.
The average price of a home in the GTA was $784,558 last month – down from an average of $915,126 in the same month last year.
READ MORE: January home sales in Greater Toronto Area down 22% from year ago
In Toronto alone, the board says the average home sold for $817,642 compared to $897,856 a year ago.
TREB president Tim Syrianos says higher borrowing costs and other factors have prompted some buyers to put purchasing on hold but predicts home sales will be up relative to 2017 in the second half of this year.