TORONTO — The Toronto Real Estate Board said Wednesday that its benchmark benchmark housing price index is at a two-year low, reflecting a strengthening Canadian economy.
The Real Estate Association of Canada said in a report that its index of housing prices in the Greater Toronto Area, which includes Toronto, was at a one-year high of 3,664 in October.
Toronto realtors also saw the highest rate of new listings in the country, at 8.7 per cent in October, up from 7.2 per cent a year earlier.
The industry-wide rise in listings was attributed to a higher rate of renter moves, a bigger number of homes for sale and the end of a long and hot market.
Real estate stocks are up, as is the value of Canadian government bonds, the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s quarterly report showed Wednesday.
The bank also forecast that Toronto’s housing market will benefit from the strengthening U.S. economy, which is expected to create jobs for many of its 1.3 million workers.
But it said that the outlook for Canada’s housing sector is uncertain and is subject to the vagaries of the federal government.
“The economy is evolving, with a higher demand for housing and a lower supply of new homes, and as such, the Canadian housing market is expected not to be as strong as in recent years,” the bank said.
“In the medium term, however, it is clear that the housing sector in Canada is poised to expand significantly.
As a result, there is reason to expect a more positive outlook for the housing market in the future.”
