May 2023 Market Report – Closing the Gap
For the second month in a row, the average sales price of homes in the GTA rose significantly. How much? How about $1,153,269 in April to $1,196,101 in May? That 3.7% increase follows the 4.0% leap from March to April.
Year-to-date, GTA homes are now selling for 15.2% more than they were in January. While the average price in May is still down 1.2% when compared to last May’s $1,212,806, the gap is closing.
To illustrate how far we’ve come in 2023, February’s gap from the previous year was 17.9%! The pace of the 2023 market looks set to eventually top 2022’s, as I alluded to in last month’s report. It’ll likely happen in the next two months, and definitely by the fall.
GTA
Total housing transactions featured a more significant jump from month to month than the sales price. There was a 19.7% increase from the 7,531 homes sold in April to a whopping 9,012 sales posted in May. And when comparing that figure to the 7,226 sales in May of 2022, 2023 is 24.7% higher.
As for contributors to the increase in sales prices and transactions, we can look to the increase in new listings. There were 15,194 new listings in May, a 33.7% growth from April’s 11,364. While May 2023’s new listings are still much lower than the 18,687 posted in May 2022, it’s encouraging given the overall shortage of new listings in the current year.
The GTA experienced a solid increase in active listings, where 14.4% growth was achieved from April to May, to 11,868 from 10,373.
Toronto
Toronto real estate prices continued to grow in May. The average price in the 416 rose to $1,197,101 from 1,120,352 in April.
New listings also grew substantially, from 4,389 in April to 5,734 in May; active listings increased from 4,389 in April to 4,949 in May.
The Sales-to-New-Listings Ratio (SNLR) was also up across both the GTA and the City of Toronto. The region’s SNLR reached a noteworthy 51.5% from 48.8%; while the 416’s SNLR moved to 49.4% from 47.1%.
Outlook
While in January of this year, the GTA was sitting at an average sales price that was 22.2% lower than February 2022’s peak, the recent uptick in price has reduced that gap to 10.4%.
But each region has experienced different declines and rebounds. The gap is as wide as -19.4% in Durham, and -13.2% in York; but the decline is only -1.1% in the City of Toronto.
So, while prices have rebounded across the GTA, each region is different. As a result, take that into consideration when making your decision to put your house on the market, or enter the market as a seller.