The sorry state of Toronto’s housing market is proof that buyer confidence is so low that even years of dropping prices and interest rates aren’t enough to revive it.
That’s the major take-away from two reports this week from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, which outlined dismal sales in January and equally dismal sales projections for the coming year.
The average selling price of a home in the Greater Toronto Area dipped below $1-million for the first time since January, 2021. That marks an erasure of five years of property value and brings the market back to a late-2020 era for Toronto housing prices, said John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty, in an interview Wednesday.
Meanwhile, interest-rate cuts from the Bank of Canada and commentary from Governor Tiff Macklem signal that interest rates are probably as low as they’ll be for the foreseeable future.
Despite that, both TRREB and Greater Vancouver Realtors aren’t forecasting any growth for at least the first half of 2026. Buyers are simply too concerned about the U.S.-Canada trade relationship and its impact on our economy to jump into the housing market.
Analysts say there is pent-up demand from multiple years of slow sales, but it won’t be released until the Canadian economy shows signs of strength. Until then, the status quo of faltering prices and stable mortgage rates is likely to persist.
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