Home sales in the bellwether markets of Toronto and Vancouver fell sharply in April as the COVID-19 pandemic kept both buyers and sellers on the sidelines.
Home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada’s largest housing market, totaled 2,975 in April, a 67% year-over-year decline, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).
In the uncertain environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic, homeowners stopped listing and selling their houses, pushing active listings down 41% year-over-year. The average selling price in Toronto was flat on a year-over-year basis at $821,392. However, that marked a 9% drop in price from March’s average of $902,680.
Meanwhile, home sales in the Greater Vancouver Area hit their lowest levels in nearly 40 years in April, and analysts say buyers can expect price declines to follow. The April sales total in Vancouver of 1,109 units was 62.7% below the 10-year average for April and the lowest total for the month since 1982.
New home listings also fell, down by 59.7% to 2,313 in April compared with a year earlier, while the total number of active listings was down 34.6% compared with April 2019. The sales-to-active listings ratio was 11.8% for the month, just nudging into the level analysts consider as signalling potential for downward pressure on prices.
For April, house prices in Vancouver held steady with the composite benchmark index price up 2.5% from a year earlier, and up 0.2% from March at $1.04 million.