Ontario home sales set new October record
Residential sales activity reported through the MLS® Systems of real estate Boards and Associations in Ontario numbered 20,583 units in October 2016, an increase of 8.9 per cent from a year earlier.
This was the highest October sales figure on record and marked the first time October sales had ever broken through the 20,000 mark.
Nationally, home sales activity edged up two per cent from year-ago levels in October 2016, largely once again on Ontario’s strength.
Provincial year-to-date home sales were running 9.7 per cent above the first 10 months of 2015. The 216,028 homes that have traded hands so far this year put 2016 well on track to set a new annual record.
The provincial average price for homes sold in October 2016 was a record $561,896, rising 19 per cent from a year earlier.
The national average price, by comparison, rose 5.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis to $481,994.
The year-to-date average price for Ontario was $532,878, rising 14.4 per cent from a year earlier.
New listings on the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Ontario numbered 27,162 units in October, a decrease of 2.6 per cent from a year earlier.
Active residential listings numbered 42,157 units at the end of October, down 29.8 per cent from one year earlier. Supply is now running near record lows.
There were just two months of inventory at the end of October 2016, down from 3.2 months at the same time one year ago and below the long-run average for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
The value of all home sales in the province totalled $11.6 billion in October 2016, an increase of 29.6 per cent from October 2015. This was the highest level of any October on record and the first October to surpass $10 billion.
The dollar volume of all home sales in Canada was up 8.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis.
Sales of all property types in Ontario numbered 21,832 units in October, up 9.5 per cent from October 2015. The value of those sales amounted to $12 billion, rising 30.3 per cent from a year earlier.

From the Canadian Real Estate Association