Toronto home sales hit record high in August

September 25, 2020

Total Canada housing sales in August increased by 35 per cent compared to a year earlier and were up in six out of 10 markets, including in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the Vancouver region, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).
Sales soared 40.3 per cent in the GTA compared to a year earlier to set a new record for the month with 10,775 transactions. The composite home price in the GTA shot up 20 per cent to $951,404, CREA reports.
Greater Vancouver posted a 36.6 per cent sales in increase compared to August 2019 and the benchmark composite home price rose 5.3 per cent to just over $1 million.
Nationally, sales were up 6.2 per cent in August from a very active July—and the number of listings on the multiple listing service of real estate boards increased 10.6 per cent, month-over-month.
Further, the national average sale price increased by 18.5 per cent on a year-over-year basis.
In the first eight months of 2020, a total of 341,463 homes traded hands—an increase of 0.8 per cent from the same period in 2019.
“It has been a record-setting summer in many housing markets across Canada as realtors and their clients play catch up following the loss of so much of the 2020 spring market,” confirmed CREA chair Costa Poulopoulos.
“Many markets dealing with inventory shortages have been seeing fierce competition among buyers this summer; although, that was something that had been anticipated for 2020 prior to COVID-19,” he added.