While still far from recovered, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) housing market continued to see increased activity in August as home sales grew on a year-over-year basis for the second month in a row. According to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), there were 5,211 home sales last month, up 2.3% compared to August 2024.
This bump follows a 10.9% annual increase in home sales recorded in the previous month, which was the highest July home sales had been since 2021. On a seasonally-adjusted month-over-month basis, however, sales dipped 15.7% in August from July’s 6,100 transactions.
Zooming out, while the period from January to June was substantially weaker this year compared to last year — thanks largely to economic uncertainty from US tariff policies — gains made over the last two months have been promising.
“Compared to last year, we have seen a modest increase in home sales over the summer,” said TRREB President Elechia Barry-Sproule. “With the economy slowing and inflation under control, additional interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada could help offset the impact of tariffs. Greater affordability would not only support more home sales but also generate significant economic spin-off benefits.”
The Bank of Canada’s policy rate currently sits at 2.75%, and while banks like BMO and TD forecast the overnight rate hitting 2.25% as early as Q1-2026, others like Scotiabank see it remaining at 2.75% until Q1-2026, while RBC expects the BoC to hold through the entirety of 2026.
Still, interest rates have come down from 5% since June 2024 and GTA home prices have fallen from an average of $1,193,771 in 2022 to $1,022,143 this August, making it more attainable for some to enter into homeownership. But not all.
“A household earning the average income in the GTA is still finding it challenging to afford the monthly mortgage payment associated with the purchase of an average priced home,” said TRREB Chief Information Officer Jason Mercer. “This is even with lower borrowing costs and selling prices over the past year.”
Like Barry-Sproule, Mercer calls for further interest rate cuts to spur housing markets.
But while more relief may be needed, listings have been piling up for some time, creating a solid buyers’ market for those with the means to make a deal. Active listings have continued to grow each month after hitting a 25-year high in May at 30,964 listings. In August, there were 27,495 active listings, up 22.4% from 2025, and 14,038 new listings were added, up by 9.4% year over year.
On the price front, August saw both the average GTA selling price and MLS Home Price Index Composite benchmark price (HPI) dip 5.2% year over year. Month over month, the HPI remained relatively flat, and the average selling price dropped by about $30k from $1,052,230 in July.