Every month the Toronto Real Estate Board publishes their statistics on how the Toronto real estate market is behaving. The June 2018 statistics have come out, and for the most part, they don’t reveal anything that should make you gasp and cover your eyes. In many ways, the June statistics reveal what many of the other months this year have already indicated.

Here is what the June 2018 TREB statistics continue to tell us along with all the other months in 2018:

1. PEAK AND VALLEY Currently, for all property types, real estate in Toronto has bounced back significantly from last year. We are not in any way living through a Toronto real estate market that is falling, but growing in some sectors and recovering in others. For all property types, we hit a new record last year for the average Toronto property peaking at $942,677 in April of 2017. We hit the lowest number in August of 2017 at $742, 518. The gap between these two prices may seem large, and it is. Just keep in mind, though, that prices tend to almost always be higher in April than August. Now, to put that peak and valley into perspective, let’s look at the latest stats. In June of 2018, we sit at $870,559 for an average price for all property types in Toronto. It’s a significant bounce back from last year, though not quite the peak of last year either. But the direction is very clear. Every month since January has shown a higher number than the previous month. So, I think it’s safe to say: Toronto real estate prices overall are going up in 2018.
2. CONDOS ARE IMMUNE Now when we separate out houses and condo apartments, we can see that the condos in many ways did not have the correction that houses did in 2017. I have said repeatedly that downtown condos have not felt the same effects as detached, new houses in North York in the past 1.5 years. In fact, if I go back to last year, and I only take into account the condo apartment sales from January 2017 to June 2018, the peak is not in April of 2017, but now. June 2018 has the highest price point of all the months this year and last year at $605,530. The lowest point is January of 2017 at $472,108. It’s really quite amazing. When I merely isolate condo apartments, it’s like the mini boom and bust of last year didn’t happen in Toronto. Prices did dip slightly from April 2017 to August of 2017, but this year has proven to have higher selling prices than last year across Toronto for condo apartments.
3. OLD CITY OF TORONTO VS THE EXBURBS June also reflects a trend that has been prevalent all year. The Old City of Toronto before 1998 amalgamation has much stronger prices this year. The price drops of last year did not seem to have the same impact in the old city of Toronto as it did in the ex-suburbs (Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York). The June stats also revealed one thing that was particularly surprising that we did not see with the other months. One trend that happens almost every year: The prices from May tend to be higher than the prices in June. May tends to be a stronger month for sales. There are more staged and in-demand houses brought out in May, a peak Spring month, that make the sold prices higher on average. Houses that do not sell in May often sell for less in June as the Spring market slows down. So, June often has lower price point than May. For all property types, the improvement is up 1.38% from May 2018 to June 2018. This may seem small, but again, I will remind you that it is usually down. It is also a rather substantial jump from one month to the next as well.

Could this possibly mean that things are heating up quickly again?

I don’t think so. I think it is more of a sign that the fear and apprehension of last year continues to leave the market. I think this year has shown us that prices overall are quite stable. All housing types continue to recover and condo apartments are going to new heights. But one thing I think is safe to say: 2017 may have been exciting to some and terrifying to others, but 2018 has proven to be rather boring and stable when you take into account all property types in Toronto. But sometimes boring is good.