appears to have run its course and sellers are now “back in the driver’s seat in most major markets,” a new report from the bank suggests. published this week, RBC Senior Economist Robert Hogue said that “spring 2023 increasingly looks like the turnaround point for Canada’s housing market after a year-long slump,” with home sales across Canada rising 11.3 per cent month-over-month in April.
He said that the average benchmark price also increased in about three-quarters of all markets tracked by the bank last month, including in Toronto where prices rose 2.4 per cent to an average of $1.1 million."Earlier tentative signs of a turnaround in Toronto and Vancouver were confirmed in a big way in April," the report notes. "Home resales jumped 27 per cent and 25 per cent month over month, respectively, rolling back roughly one-quarter of the correction in one go.
"April's widespread vigour is a surprise to us. While we did expect the market to reach its cyclical bottom this spring, we thought it would take a while for the heat to return. Our view was—and remains—that the significant loss of affordability in the past year would keep buyers timid for some time," Hogue wrote.
"First-time buyers, in particular, continue to face major hurdles. Perhaps soaring immigration and a boiling hot rental market are becoming the primary driving forces fueling homebuyer demand. In which case, we could see prices extending April’s gains—possibly materially." The average price of a Toronto home across all property types peaked at $1,334,062 in February 2022 before dropping to a recent low of $1,037,542 amid an aggressive campaign to push up the cost of borrowing.
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