December 2020 – what’s been happening across the GTA
December is typically a slow month in the real estate world, with buyers and sellers focused on celebrating the holidays rather than on making a move. However, like the rest of this crazy year, the last month of 2020 was anything but typical. House sales continued to smash records while condos stayed slow.
The hot housing trend towards single-family housing (detached and semi-detached houses and townhomes) continued through to the end of the year, capping off 2020 with a busy, record-breaking month. December sales slowed slightly month-over-month due to the season, but they’re still significantly higher than they were in December 2019; there’s been a whopping increase of 66.1% new listings. In December, more GTA properties sold than ever before: year-over-year (YOY) residential transactions increased by 64.5%.
And they sold faster, with a higher average selling price. Since this time last year, the average selling price rose 11.2% to $932,222, with a 14.6% inventory decrease and a drop from 41 to 35 average days on market.
The single family market segment has continued to lead the charge, with townhouse, semi-detached and detached homes seeing YOY increases of 14.1% to 17.7%. The GTA condo market was much flatter: average price dropped by 2% year over year.
The City of Toronto accounted for 37.8% of GTA sales in December 2020, with an average price of $894,576, and 33.4% for all of 2020, with an average price of $986,085. In Mississauga, the average price for detached homes breached $1.4 million for the first time ever, jumping nearly $200,000 over what we saw just a couple of months ago!
“This is more than just a story of a flight to the suburbs,” says Todd Armstrong, who specializes in West GTA real estate. “It’s also a reflection of historically low borrowing costs. Buyers tend to move en masse, and right now everyone is experiencing FOMO. What we’re seeing is a feeding frenzy, with 25% of Mississauga houses sold within three days of hitting the market, at an average of 6% above asking.”
For anyone looking to get into a single-family home, it's more important than ever to have a well-trained and experienced agent to navigate this market.
Condos in higher density areas haven’t seen the same uptick. The number of listings on the market has outpaced growth in sales, driving prices down to an average $625,828. This opens up a real opportunity for those with limited budgets to enter the market. Selection is good, prices are stable but softer than peak and borrowing costs are low.
In contrast to downtown Toronto, Mississauga condos sales are by no means stalled. Condos sales in December 2020 outstripped monthly sales in December 2019 by 83%, and prices too are up 6% annually. However, this is far below the double-digit increases we’ve seen in the last few years and lower than the pre-pandemic peak.
Inventory of condos for lease remains at an all-time high across the GTA as we await the return of students and immigrants, and rents are the lowest we’ve seen in years. This has led investors to be cautious about picking up units they can’t easily rent out, leaving the door wide open for first-time buyers.
Without any external forces acting on the market, we can likely expect more of the same in 2021. It’s safe to say that this is an incredible opportunity for downsizers moving from houses to condos, where selection is great and buyers can negotiate. It’s also a great time for up-sizers in the condo space - there’s no better time to jump to more square footage or from a one to two (or two+den) bedrooms!
Learn more about the condo market here