Scarborough leads GTA in home price hike

May 21, 2021

The contention that home buyers have moved out of inner city neighbourhoods to the suburbs during COVID-19 is borne out by a survey of home price increases in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
A study conducted by real estate broker, Properly, found home prices outside the city of Toronto are seeing double-digit prices hikes and turning traditional trends on their head.
Properly compared sold prices of homes bought in each of the 10 areas in Toronto in the six months prior to the pandemic (September 2019 to February 2020) to their current estimated selling price on May 1, 2021.
For each home, Properly calculated the difference in sold price to the home's estimated market value in April 2021 using its artificial intelligence-driven tool called Instant Estimate, and then provided an average by area and municipality.
"There has been increased conversation around the skyrocketing home prices in Toronto," said Anshul Ruparell, co-founder and CEO of Properly. "But what's happening is actually the reverse of what we usually assume: that people want to be close to downtown. Old Toronto is seeing the overall lowest appreciation within the City of Toronto.”
Comparing the purchase price of homes bought in the lead up to the pandemic to their current sale price, properties in Scarborough have jumped in value by a whopping 25 per cent, to $915,800. This is followed by York, up 21 per cent—outside of one East York neighbourhood, Crescent Town, which posted a 37 per cent price increase—the highest increase in the GTA. Etobicoke posted a 19 per cent price increase to just over $992,300.
On the other hand, home values in the City of Toronto's Uptown neighbourhood have seen the lowest appreciation at just 5 per cent, followed by Midtown (7 per cent) and Downtown (8 per cent).