531 
According to a new report released by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), the average price of a new Toronto home declined in October. While there was an overall increase in new home supply, a decrease in average prices was recorded for both high-rise and low-rise housing.
Largely due to an increase in supply, the average price of low-rise detached, semi‐detached homes, and townhomes fell to $937,689, declining $54,702 from September. During the same period, the average price per square foot for low-rise housing rose slightly from September numbers, now sitting at $394. While an inventory of 2,282 new low‐rise homes are currently available, this supply is still far below what was seen a decade before. The sale of 1,621 new low‐rise homes in October represents a 10% decline year over year, though this figure still exceeds the 10‐year average. 802 of the over 1,600 homes sold were detached, a 16% decline from October 2015. With much of the new housing stock in Toronto proper coming in the form of high-rise developments, approximately 66% of these low-rise home sales occurred in York and Halton regions.
“The industry is doing what it can to provide new home buyers with ground‐related choices that they can afford,” said BILD President and CEO Bryan Tuckey. “Builders brought more semi‐detached homes and townhomes to market in October than in previous months and they are smaller and more affordable than single detached homes.”
An even steeper decline was noted in the high-rise category, which is in part being attributed to the growing number of new projects launching outside of Downtown Toronto. For example, 10 of the 15 project launches recorded in October occurred in 905 regions, a sharp increase from the 35% of launches in the 905 recorded last year.
While the supply of new high-rise homes increased to 18,210 units in October, the 2,421 high‐rise homes sold in this period represents a 27% decrease when measured year over year. Despite the drop in sales, high-rise sales for 2016 are still on track to break the standing record, with 23,189 sales recorded so far this year. The average new high-rise home price dropped incrementally to $483,656, though this still marks a 10% rise over last year's figure. A decrease in price per square foot for high‐rise housing brings the October figure down to $594. While this represents a decrease from September, the price per square foot for this submarket in fact increased 4% over last October's figures.
“While inventory has grown slightly, it’s important to understand that one month does not a trend make and constrained supply is still a serious issue in the GTA,” Tuckey said. “What we are seeing in the market is how the development industry is implementing provincial intensification policies by building more affordable low‐rise homes and a variety of high‐rise communities all over the GTA.”
***
Have an opinion on the decreasing home prices in the Greater Toronto Area? How have these issues affected you and your community? Feel free to leave a comment in the section below expressing your thoughts.
