Briefing highlights
- Toronto home prices surge as listings dwindle
- Oil sands firms cut back
- Canada's trade gap swells to record
- Video: How to say no to more work
Home prices surge
Toronto home prices surged in April as listings dried up, sparking a tumble in sales.
“As we move into the busiest time of the year, in terms of sales volume, strong competition between buyers will continue to push home prices higher,” Jason Mercer, director of market analysis at the Toronto Real Estate Board, said today as the group released its April statistics.
“A greater supply of listings would certainly be welcome, but we would need to see a number of consecutive months in which listings growth outpaced sales growth before market conditions become more balanced.”
The average price for a detached home in the 416 area code is now almost $1.3-million, while in the outlying 905 area it’s more than $881,000.
That’s an increase of 19 per cent in the core and almost 21 per cent in the other regions.
Overall sales of detached homes fell 4 per cent in the 416 area, but surged more than 11 per cent in the 905.
Sales of semi-detached homes tumbled almost 11 per cent in the former, and rose just 2.8 per cent in the latter.
And here’s a crucial statistic: Active listings are now down by a sharp 26.9 per cent from a year ago, and new listings by almost 10 per cent.
Overall sales figures for the entire GTA rose by 7.4 per cent.
“While April’s sales result represented a new record for sales, that number could have been even higher if we had benefitted from more supply,” said Mark McLean, the group’s president, putting the blame on taxes and fees.
“In the City of Toronto, in particular, some households have chosen not to list their home for sale because of the second substantial land transfer tax and associated administration fee,” he added.
“The lack of available inventory, coupled with record sales, continued to translate into robust annual rates of price growth.”
Across the Greater Toronto Area, the average home price climbed 16.2 per cent, while the MLS home price index, deemed a better measure, rose 12.6 per cent.
Oil sands firms cut back
Some Canadian oil and gas companies are curtailing production at their facilities north of Fort McMurray as the fire in the area continues to rage.
Suncor Energy Inc. said it is reducing production at its regional facility “to allow employees and their families to get to safety,” The Globe and Mail’s Bertrand Marotte, Shawn McCarthy and Kelly Cryderman report.
Shell Canada has shut down production at its Albion Sands mining operations, which can produce up to 255,000 barrels per day, so it can concentrate on getting families out of the region, company spokesman Cameron Yost said.
The Albion operations are not threatened by the fire, he said.
Trade gap at record
Canada’s trade deficit swelled to a record $3.4-billion in March, as a second straight month of falling exports raised questions about the health of the country’s export-led economic recovery, The Globe and Mail’s David Parkinson writes.
Exports, by value, sank 4.8 per cent in March from February, to their lowest monthly total since January, 2014, Statistics Canada said today.
The slumping export numbers pose a challenge to the widely held expectation among economists that rising non-energy exports will continue to lead Canada’s economy out of the oil shock and into a more robust recovery this year.