Throughout much of 2011, the housing sector in Toronto moved at a swift pace, with a considerable number of homes being bought and sold. According to the Toronto Real Estate Board, the last month of the year proved to be no exception.
TREB reports there were more than 4,700 housing transactions in the Greater Toronto Area in December, making 2011 the second-best year on record for home sales in the region. Overall, nearly 89,350 home sales were conducted, a 4 per cent uptick when compared to 2010.
Richard Silver, president of the TREB, said affordable mortgage rates helped spur buying activity.
"Low borrowing costs kept buyers confident in their ability to comfortably cover their mortgage payments along with other major housing costs," said 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."
A recent market intelligence report indicates builders will try to increase the availability of units in 2012, but the pace of escalation may not be remarkable.
According to the BTY Group's Market Intelligence Report for 2012, construction workloads for builders will be stable in 2012, thanks to strong investment in other sectors of the economy, such as transportation, energy, mining and healthcare.
Joe Rekab, managing partner at BTY Group, said that while home construction in Canada may not be significant in 2012, the housing scene is strong when compared to other portions of the world.
"Even with lower than expected growth in the U.S., worries over European bailouts and slower growth in residential construction in most of the country, we expect reasonably healthy levels of activity across Canada," said Rekab.
He added that while virtually every province will experience somewhat of a cooling period, building activity will rise rather sharply in British Columbia and Alberta. Some of the most significant construction to take place in BC will be in the residential and private sectors.
Last November, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a housing market forecast for Toronto in 2012, which predicted that home sales would dip somewhat while condominium construction would continue to grow.
Meanwhile, in Ontario's largest metropolitan region, average home values suggest the real estate sector is one of the province's healthiest industries. TREB reports that the average selling price for a home in the GTA in December was $451,436 - a 4 per cent increased when contrasted with December 2010. For 2011 as a whole, the average selling price was $465,412, 8 per cent ahead of the 2010 average of $431,276.
"Months of inventory remained below the pre-recession norm in 2011," said Jason Mercer, senior manager of market analysis for TREB. "Very tight market conditions meant substantial competition between Buyers and strong upward pressure on selling prices."
He added that the average price for a home in Ontario will likely increase even more in 2012, topping off at $485,000 a 4 per cent annual rate of price growth. However, Mercer noted that this prediction is highly suspect given global economic uncertainty.
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