Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax housing market suffering from low housing supply – TREBB report

March housing sales in the GTA are up nine per cent, prices are up four per cent and new listings are 1.6 per cent higher but low levels of inventory mean the market is tightening, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s latest report.

Months of supply remained relatively unchanged from March, declared the TREBB report, and is still at 2.3 months for the GTA. Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax and Newmarket, in particular, are all suffering from low levels of supply with under two months of inventory.

“As demand for ownership housing has picked up relative to supply, we are seeing renewed upward pressure on home prices,” said TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer. “For a short period of time, higher borrowing costs trumped the impact of the constrained housing supply in the GTA. Renewed competition between buyers is once again shining the spotlight on the persistent lack of listings and resulting impact on affordability.”

Affordable housing types, especially condo apartments, was the growth sector earlier in the year but it looks like that trend may be coming to an end as detached properties made significant gains last month. The market experienced the largest month-over-month sales increase at 14.9 per cent with 3,448 homes trading hands. The City of Toronto and Peel Region led the way in detached sales, with 767 and 642 sales respectively.

“Many buyers have come to terms with higher borrowing costs and are taking advantage of lower selling prices compared to this time last year,” noted TRREB President Paul Baron. “The issue moving forward will not be the demand for ownership housing, but rather the ability to meet this demand with adequate supply. This is a policy issue that requires sustained effort from all levels of government.”