Strained affordability amid higher borrowing costs continues to drag down Toronto’s “lethargic” housing market this summer, according to a new report by RBC Economics.
Despite “a modest resales advance in June,” the report read, that gain was essentially “reversed” by a 0.7 per cent dip in July.On the supply side, the report states, inventories are “accumulating rapidly.” Soft demand has come “well short of absorbing the surge in properties up for sale,” according to the report.
The aggregate MLS Home Price Index benchmark was $1.09 million in July, essentially unchanged from April but down five per cent from one year ago, a decline which takes last fall’s “mild correction” into account.“We expect mounting condo inventories will put downward pressure on prices in the near term,” the report read. “Recovering demand later this year and into 2025 should contain that soft patch.
“After a small uptick between May and June, home resales fell again in some markets including Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto in July, according to early reports from local real estate boards. However, activity picked up slightly in Edmonton and Montreal,” the report stated.