During the 2nd full month of covid-19 pandemic in May 2021, the residential transactions are still recorded 11,951 sales across Greater Toronto Area and remained well above the average May sales of 10,336 from 2010 to 2019. But it is still below the March peak 15,646 deals this year.
Due to the strong demand for ownership housing especially the millennial buyers with the confidence in economic recovery following the vaccine roll-out program and the high sales-to-new listings ratio, it induces in shifting upward pressure on selling price. The average selling price across all home types was up by 28.4% compared last year reaching $1,108,453.
The new mortgage higher stress test was launched on 1 June 2021 in order to cool off the hot housing market. However, this new policy may impact the first time buyers in short or medium term. The existing border closure defers the normal pace of population growth resulting a pullback in sales over the past two months of March and April.
During the first 5 months in 2021, the total 59,077 sales were reached due to the pent-up demand from last year. So, the residential sales transactions may have a bit slow down but the selling prices are also expected to rise gradually in next few months. We look forward to new horizon of economic recovery from the border and retail business open in fall after achieving our vaccination targets.
