The mercury keeps rising on Toronto’s housing market!

According many industry insiders, there’s no cooling in sight for Toronto’s sizzling housing market. Using stats from the Toronto Real Estate Board, July showed the highest recorded number of sales ever in Toronto – almost 10,000 homes were sold at an average price of $1.2 million (detached homes in the City of Toronto) –  just shy of a 21% leap from the same period last year. In the 905, the average price for a detached home was $888,565 up almost 22% from last July.

It’s not just single detached homes that are riding this wild ride. Townhomes and semis also saw double digit price gains in July. The average price of new condos rose 9% to $406,865 – resale condos jumped 8.2% in 416 and 13% in 905 from the prices one year ago.

Could this lead to the imposition of a realty tax on foreign investor purchases in Toronto similar to the 15% tax levied this summer in Vancouver? The Toronto Real Estate Board opposes the tax and is presently polling its members to gauge the extent of foreign investment in the Greater Toronto Area.

Rising prices are being fuelled by a shortage of listings and traditionally low mortgage rates. Rather than imposing a tax on foreign investment, many industry pros are urging government to increase the housing supply.

In any event, investing in real estate in Toronto is still a prudent choice with ROI higher than just about any other investment.