TORONTO, ONTARIO, April 3, 2020 – Toronto Regional Real Estate Board President Michael Collins announced that Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 8,012 home sales through TRREB’s MLS® System in March 2020 – up by 12.3 per cent compared to 7,132 sales reported in March 2019.
The Effect of COVID-19
However, despite a strong increase in sales for March 2020 as a whole, there was a clear break in market activity between the pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 periods. In surveying the real estate market numbers, the start of the post-COVID-19 period was the week beginning Sunday, March 15. • The overall March sales result was clearly driven by the first two weeks of the month. There were 4,643 sales reported in the pre-COVID-19 period, accounting for 58 per cent of total transactions and representing a 49 per cent increase compared to the first 14 days of March 2019.
There were 3,369 sales reported during the post-COVID-period – down by 15.9 per cent compared to the same period in March 2019. For March as a whole, new listings were up by three per cent year-over-year to 14,424. However, similar to sales, new listings dropped on a year-over-year basis during the second half of the month (beginning March 15) by 18.4 per cent. The MLS® Home Price Index Composite Benchmark price was up by 11.1 per cent year-over-year in March The average selling price for March 2020 as a whole was $902,680 – up 14.5 per cent compared to March 2019. The average selling price for sales reported between March 15 and March 31, was $862,563 – down from the first half of March 2020, but still up by 10.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.
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It appears that the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic is having a profound effect on the local Toronto real estate market, and time will tell how long this will last. Currently, while stay-at-home protocols are in effect, it seems likely that sales activity will remain slow in the near future.